Inside Real Estate, an independently-owned real estate software company, recently released its COVID-19 Industry Reponses & Outlook Report.
According to the report, week-over-week new listings in mid-March fell due to shelter-in-place orders. The YoY gap was the widest during the week of April 6—a 42 percent drop in listing volume. During week 17 of 2020, the national levels began picking back up and getting closer to the 2019 new listing levels. Monthly, April took the hardest hit in new listings, experiencing a 37 percent drop YoY (about 225,000 fewer listings and $3.8 billion in losses for potential commissions).
“These trends show enormous resiliency in the real estate industry to date, given the level of shelter-in-place and state mandates occurring across the country. With the assumption of real estate maintaining an ‘essential business’ status, this data trend points…towards steady recovery at the national level,” said Nick Macey, chief product officer for Inside Real Estate.
Inside Real Estate surveyed nearly 1,000 real estate professionals across the U.S. and Canada. In terms of business impact, 60 percent said coronavirus impact was tied to open houses, with declines between 76-100 percent. Only 38 percent said their listings were down by less than 10 percent. Meanwhile, two thirds of respondents said listings were down less than 50 percent.
With more time spent online, Inside Real Estate reported a boost in agent engagement with their platforms, as well as a dip in online lead costs.
“We’ve seen sizeable decreases in cost-per-leads though advertising platforms like Facebook,” said Macey. “Users of our CORE PropertyBoost product, which promotes listings on Facebook and proactively updates the home seller, experienced a 52 percent drop in cost-per-lead from February to May. Consumers are clearly spending more time online, exposing them to more advertising, which is driving down the costs for lead gen.”
“Equally fascinating is the rapid increase in inbound consumer engagement for our platform users,” said Macey. “From Weeks 15-17, when new listing volume reached a low point, we saw a 35 percent spike in contacts actively interacting via inbound calls, texts and emails with our kvCORE agents.”
As for the future, 61 percent of those surveyed believe the worst will occur by the end of May, while 91 percent expect the worst to be over by the end of September 2020.
“Our study shows the sudden devastating drop in new listings across the country, yet an overall sense of optimism across the board,” said Joe Skousen, president of Inside Real Estate. “Our comprehensive listing data, extensive footprint in practicing professionals, platform and consumer data all align to suggest remarkable resilience and adaptability in this industry. Many businesses may not have financial stability to weather the downturn, and opportunities for consolidation and strategic investments are expected. Companies across all sectors that have a solid financial footing, are embracing the new norm and intent on investing in efficiency and business growth, will be positioned to benefit during the recovery.”
For more information, please visit www.insiderealestate.com.
