Recently, traffic information and driver services provider INRIX announced a collaboration that will make Remax.com the first national real estate brand website to give prospective homebuyers the ability to identify and compare home listings based on preferred commute times rather than distance to work.
The new search tool called INRIX Drive Time™ provides consumers with an easy, visual means to find all homes for sale within a specific drive time between respective properties and their work address, schools or other important locations based on typical travel times at rush hour and throughout the day.
“Buying a home is the single largest financial decision most of us will ever make and drive time is a quality-of-life issue to buyers. For many, it’s as important as the neighborhood and good schools,” says RE/MAX Technology Strategy Officer John Smiley, “INRIX is the perfect choice to provide drive time data since leading automakers, news media and governments already rely upon them for vital traffic information. We’re taking the guesswork out of one of consumers most important purchase criteria – their commute.”
According to the National Association of REALTORS®, 73 percent of all homebuyers consider drive time to work a key purchase criterion. Additionally, the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2013 American Community Survey found 88 percent of American commuters travel to work by car. More than 600,000 of those commuters face commutes of at least 50 miles from home taking at least 90 minutes each way.
Remax.com will bring INRIX Drive Time to customers in all 50 states beginning with New Jersey in the first quarter of 2014. To determine drive times using this new feature, potential homebuyers simply enter the addresses of the locations most important to them as part of their search criteria. The tool automatically shows neighborhoods and properties that meet their desired travel time.
“In a world measured in miles, we measure it in minutes,” says INRIX General Manager of GeoAnalytics Kevin Foreman. “Using INRIX Drive Time, RE/MAX is able to help agents better serve clients with insight invaluable to consumers’ pursuit of the perfect home.”
INRIX Drive Time is powered by traffic information sourced from the INRIX Traffic Intelligence Platform, which analyzes data from a variety of public and private sources ranging from government road sensors, official accident and incident reports to real-time traffic speeds crowd-sourced from a community of approximately 100 million drivers. INRIX analyzes of traffic speeds also factors in impacts common to the day of the week, season, local holidays, current and forecasted weather, accidents and road construction giving drivers insight that helps them save time, fuel and avoid frustration every day. INRIX real-time traffic information is refreshed every minute then archived into an historical database updated every 6 weeks ensuring RE/MAX always has the most current drive time information .
For more information, visit www.remax.com.
