The coronavirus pandemic rages on, but homebuyers aren’t letting that stop them. Home showing activity surged for the second straight month in June, according to an index from showing management tech firm ShowingTime.
Showing traffic increased 50.1 percent nationwide in June compared to June 2019 with the Northeast leading the way (up 66.9 percent year over year), followed by the West (up 48 percent), the Midwest (up 40.2 percent) and then the South (up 39.6 percent).
ShowingTime called the showings increase a “historic turnaround” and said buyer traffic “resembled that typically seen in the spring, as agents and buyers made up for pandemic-induced lost time by continuing to leverage historically low mortgage rates and newly available virtual showing technology.”
The company has more than 1.2 million active listings across 370 multiple listing services subscribed to its services and facilitates more than five million showings each month. Its Showing Index tracks the average number of appointments received on active listings each month. That average has been affected by both a rebound in buyer demand and a sharp fall in inventory.
The absolute number of showings increased between 13 percent and 15 percent in June, but the number of showable listings fell by 23 percent, so the average listing received 50 percent more appointments, according to ShowingTime Chief Analytics Officer Daniil Cherkasskiy.
“This unprecedented surge is amplified by the increasing shift of soft interactions between market participants to technology tools, leading to greater efficiency, shorter turnaround times and a larger number of appointments scheduled,” Cherkasskiy said in a statement.
At least one of the “technology tools” the company is referring to is its own ShowingTime LIVE Video feature, which lets agents do live, interactive video showings for their buyers. It launched in May at no additional cost to agents or consumers and has since facilitated more than 52,000 virtual home showings — a number the company said it expected to grow throughout the summer as it expands the feature’s availability in markets throughout North America. The feature is currently available in 30 MLSs representing about 270,000 subscribers across 13 states, a ShowingTime spokesperson told Inman.
“We’re pleased to continue helping agents meet pent-up client demand with innovations designed to keep showings going, safely and efficiently,” said ShowingTime President Michael Lane in a statement.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with an additional comment from ShowingTime.
Email Andrea V. Brambila.
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