Forward looking real estate report
Trulia has just launched what it calls the “Metro Movers Report” which is “the first report that starts with where homebuyers and renters are today and provides the inside scoop on where they want to live tomorrow and what it means for local housing demand.” Their first report reveals that home prices dropping drew house hunters away from big cities as urban living costs are up. According to Trulia.com users, 59 percent of properties they view are outside of their current metropolitan area, and most of these searches are between neighboring metros.
While more than one in five searches span over 500 miles, 56 percent of cross-metro searches are for properties in metros with larger price drops and 63 percent are for properties in more sprawling areas.
Suffering markets saved by bargains?
According to Trulia’s Metro Movers Index, the Sarasota, FL metro area gets six times as many inbound home searches by outsiders than outbound searches by locals, contrasted with areas like Washington D.C. where prices are more stable and the Metro Movers Index is under 0.5 which means there are more than twice as many outbound as there are inbound searches.
NY and Chicago love the Sunbelt states?
Almost all long-distance searches originating in New York and Chicago were searching major metros in the South and Southwest with New Yorkers preferring the Atlantic coast of Florida and Chicagoans preferring the Gulf Coast of Florida alongside Arizona, Nevada and parts of Texas.
About the forward looking indicator
“Homebuyers, sellers, real estate professionals and builders need to know which local markets will heat up and which will cool off. Search behavior tells us where people want to move and can point to which markets will grow, long before official population data tells us what happened,” said Dr. Jed Kolko, Trulia’s Chief Economist.
Kolko added, “With Trulia’s Metro Movers Report, we are providing a forward-looking indicator of where people are looking to move and where demand is increasing. This is a crucial signal for anyone with a stake in the housing market – from owners timing their sales and sellers setting their price to agents looking for prospective buyers and builders looking for their new next location.”
Full Metro Movers Index Fall 2011 Report:
