ShowingTime Index Reveals November's Usual Lull is Nonexistent this Year

As virtual home tours become the norm and scheduling in-person tours becoming more important to keep social interaction to a minimum, ShowingTime, a residential real estate showing management and market stats tech provider, reported that the usual lull in November was inverted, showing that home viewing traffic across the nation was up 47.2% year-over-year. This shows that buyer activity has boosted during times when home sales take a nosedive. 

Bigger homes with more bedrooms saw a boost in interest, ShowingTime has found, as priorities for homes have shifted to meet the new obstacles brought by the Covid crisis. Interest in four-bedroom homes in Chicago surged to 80% year-over-year and homes with larger square footage in St. Louis jumped up to 73% in interest year-over-year. 

ShowingTime President Michael Lane explained:

"The data suggests that consumers fortunate enough to have jobs where they can work from home want more space if they can find it, though the lack of available inventory continues to be a challenge. COVID-19 has slowed many normal activities and has contributed to fewer listings coming on the market, but agents have still been able to bring buyers to homes, whether in person or virtually.”

ShowingTime Chief Analytics Officer Daniil Cherkasskiy said:

"With inventory continuing to be at historic lows across the U.S., we are likely to see this elevated level of demand into next year's busy season."

ShowingTime used data from over six million property showings scheduled across the U.S. each month via ShowingTime’s products and services. The index tracks average appointment numbers received on active listings during a month’s time.