Buyer Demand Continues to Climb With February's 3.7% Year-Over-Year Increase

    CHICAGO, IL, March 21, 2018 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Home showings on the national level posted a 3.7 percent year-over-year increase in February, according to the ShowingTime Showing Index®, as high consumer demand continued throughout the winter and ahead of the spring season, real estate's most important time of year for booking sales.

Buyer engagement via showings in the Northeast and South regions outpaced the national numbers, with the Northeast Region exhibiting an 8.4 percent year-over-year increase and the South Region experiencing a year-over-year increase of 5.3 percent.

Showing activity in the West and Midwest regions experienced slight declines in showing activity in February, with the West Region dropping 4.4 percent and the Midwest Region declining 0.4 percent compared to the previous year. Those declines can be attributed to a very busy February 2017, ShowingTime Chief Analytics Officer Daniil Cherkasskiy said.

Other issues that bear monitoring in the coming months are whether higher mortgage rates and new tax laws will impact buyers, and if the new steel and aluminum tariffs will influence the already low inventory of new homes.

"Buyer demand remains strong throughout the U.S. despite prices continuing to rise across the country," Cherkasskiy said. "We experienced a very substantial increase in buyer activity during the last spring season, and this year seems to be just as busy throughout all of the regions. Activity in the Northeast has especially increased as we head into the spring season."

The ShowingTime Showing Index is compiled using data from property showings scheduled across the country on listings using ShowingTime products and services. It tracks the average number of appointments received on an active listing during the month.

ShowingTime is the leading market stats and showing management technology provider to the residential real estate industry. Its MarketStats division provides interactive tools and easy-to-read market reports for MLSs, associations, brokers, agents and other real estate companies, along with recruiting software that enables brokers to identify top agents. Its showing products and services take the inefficiencies out of the appointment scheduling process. ShowingTime products are used in more than 180 MLSs and associations representing more than 900,000 real estate professionals across the U.S. and Canada. Visit www.showingtime.com.

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