Homes.com appears to have solidified its place as the #2 portal in the U.S. market, without a corresponding decline in traffic at any other portal. (View Highlight)
Why it matters: Portal traffic appears to be a non-zero-sum game – traffic gained by one portal is additive and not coming at the expense of other portals. (View Highlight)
CoStar’s traffic reporting hasn’t been consistent – it has fluctuated between Homes.com and the entire residential network, and sometimes includes quarterly averages and other times specific months. (View Highlight)
CoStar’s inconsistent reporting runs the risk of reducing trust in its traffic numbers, even when the underlying results are impressively real. (View Highlight)
But traffic has unequivocally increased over the past year, punctuated by two periods of heavy advertising. (View Highlight)
CoStar’s advertising spend reached an all-time high in Q1 2024 – which directly corresponds to the recent traffic surge in February and March. (View Highlight)
The bottom line: While Homes.com’s traffic increase is additive to the market and not affecting other portals’ traffic, that’s not to say it won’t affect their businesses.
• Unlike website visits, there is a finite amount of transactions, commission dollars, and agents willing to spend money online; that’s a zero-sum game. (View Highlight)
