NPD AND MEDIA METRIX E-VISORY: ONLINE REAL ESTATE SITES’ TRAFFIC UP 75% OVER SAME PERIOD LAST YEAR

PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK, September 20, 2000 - There is good news for online real estate providers as a new report shows that visitors to real estate sites are increasing at a significant rate. According to a new e-Visory Report released by leading marketing information provider The NPD Group, Inc. and Media Metrix (NASDAQ: MMXI), the number of unique visitors to real estate sites increased by 75% this summer compared to the same period last year. By comparison, total Web traffic was up 22% for the period.

The increase in traffic comes even as the proportion of consumers who are online and in the market for a new home has risen only slightly, the study reported. Almost three in ten consumers who access the Internet are currently in the market to buy a new property, or have been sometime during the past six months. This is a slight increase from the results of a similar study conducted by The NPD Group in June 1999 (30% vs. 28% respectively).

The NPD survey confirms that about half of those who are online and in the market for a new property used the Internet to search for new properties online (49%). The majority of consumers searching for properties online are interested in purchasing a house (74%), with the remainder looking to buy land (10%), a condominium (10%), or co-op (1%), commercial building (1%) or some other property (5%).

The average price of those properties searched for online has increased about 9%, from $128,200 last year to $139,400 this year. Almost one-fifth of those searching online are looking at properties valued over $200,000 (18%).

Today consumers who are searching for a new property are primarily using the Internet for researching and comparing information. According to NPD, convenience (73%) and being able to gather and compare information before talking to a realtor (69%) are the top reasons for searching for a new property online.

Although real estate site visitation has increased within the past year, consumers who have searched for properties online report not being as satisfied as they could be with site features (average rating 36%). For instance, photos of properties are considered extremely or very important among almost all consumers (92%); however, only 40% are satisfied with this feature. This is a clear opportunity for real estate sites to narrow the gap and improve satisfaction by focusing on the most important site feature.

The report shows Realtor.com, the official site of the National Association of Realtors, had the highest number of unique visitors among real estate sites, with almost 2.5 million unique visitors in July of 2000 or a reach of 3.2%. MSN’s HomeAdvisor.com and Homestore.com are tied for second with 1.5 million unique visitors each. Homestore.com is the gateway to a network of sites, which includes Realtor.com as well as HomeFair.com and HomeBuilder.com. In July of 2000 the Homestore.com Network had over 4 million unique visitors, or a combined reach of 5.2%.

Source: Media Metrix, Inc.

*E-Real Estate category defined by The NPD Group, Inc.