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It's been grim for the real estate market. For example, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) showed that there was a 4.1% drop in existing home sales from June to July. It was the lowest point since January 2004.
But things may not be so bad, according to Hitwise. This company measures what people are searching for on sites like Google, Yahoo and MSN.
So, Hitwise company took a look at the search phrase "homes for sale" and did a statistical correlation with the NAR data. Interestingly enough, this approach predicted the recent decline in real estate.
What's the future hold? Hitwise forecasts a bounce back in real estate during August (there has been a 42% surge in queries). Over the past year, the Hitwise system has been wrong only once.
Yet again, this is an example of how companies are leveraging the power of the enormous amount of online data (which I have written about several times for BloggingStocks.com). It's still in the early stages, but has promise.
Maybe Hitwise can do something to predict the stock market?
Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and operates InvestorOffering.com.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-03-2006 @ 9:20AM
Paul Fels said...
As someone who is interested in relocating, but has been priced out by the housing bubble, I have a different interpretation. When I searched the hot Nevada real estate market two years ago, there was almost nothing to be found. There was no point lisiting anything on the internet, when every house was selling within days.
Now there are thousands of listings, but most of the prices are still higher than most people can afford. I suggest you watch mortgage applications instead of this meaningless indicator
9-03-2006 @ 5:27PM
Lyle said...
Comparing those wanting to sell with those wanting to buy is also a good way to look at real estate. Right now thed ratio seems to be about 4-5 sellers for every 1 buyer. Somerging tels me that a good number of people are late to the real estate party...