• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, November 17, 2003

Almost 1/3 of the Online Audience Goes to Real Estate Web Sites

According to The Media Audit, real estate web sites in 49 metro markets are attracting between 17 and 32 percent of those who go online, regularly or occasionally, during an average weekday.

"The real estate web site audience is comparable to that of the automobile web sites, says Bob Jordan, president of International Demographics/The MediaAudit. In almost all of the Media Audit markets the competition is between Realtor.com, Apartments.com and the web sites of local dailies in each market.

Do Well Realtor.com attracted more than 1 percent of adults in 38 of the 49 markets surveyed. Apartments.com attracted 1 percent or more of the adults in 26 markets and the local daily newspaper web sites attracted 1 percent or more in 37 markets. Apartments.com also represents some of the daily newspapers that showed up in the survey.

Realtor.com ranked first in 19 markets while Apartments.com ranked first in just 4 markets. Realtor.com was second in 11 markets and Apartments.com was second in 13 markets. Realtor.com is aimed at both the real estate for rent and real estate for sale markets while Apartments.com is much more narrowly focused.

"The local daily newspapers," says Jordan, "demonstrated that the Internet market is a local market. The local dailies, without the national identity and promotion of Realtor.com and Apartments.com did very well. The local dailies were either first or second in 24 markets. Since Apartments.com represents local dailies, it appears that the dailies are in a win-win situation."

Local real estate web sites showed up in several markets. Craigslist.org, an independent site, showed up in just two markets but it ranked first in both, San Francisco and San Jose. The level of competition for the real estate classified business of the local dailies is not nearly as intense as it is for the employment classified.

"It appears that what the newspapers lose in print real estate advertising they will re-acquire on their Internet editions," says Jordan.