Home Sales Coincide With Search Trends

Over the past couple of months, it seems like the resounding topic regarding real estate has been the progressive decline of home sales.

Well, the tables have finally turned. Hopefully…

According to Bill Tancer from Hitwise, the sales figures for August - which won’t be released until the end of September - should show a reversal of the downward trend.

Bill, predicts this by superimposing a graph of homes sales figures on top of a graph showing the search data for the query “homes for sale.” As you may see in the chart, there appears to be a high correlation between the two figures.

This is an excellent example of how search term volume on a term related to an economic indicator, can act as a leading indicator, helping us to predict future indicator movement.

The spike of search queries through July contradict with trends over the past two years, so it will be it will be a true test (and a very interesting one) to see if the query-to-sales relationship follows through for August’s data.

Tancer previously used this method to accurately predict the winner of this year’s American Idol and the recent unexpected rise in unemployment.

Imagine if there was a way for us to accurately predict unexpected spikes and dips in search queries for months in advance. Using the query-to-sales relationship model, one could coordinate their strategy and budget to optimize their marketing efforts.

Anyone know a search psychic?

Holla!
—kid disco