Real estate website visitor numbers are up nearly 20 percent compared to a year ago, but that could be because heightened fear about over-priced homes is driving a growing portion of the traffic.

Internet searches for "real estate bubble" skyrocketed 311 percent and searches for "housing bubble" zoomed 174 percent, both reaching a 12-month high the week ending May 28, 2005, as visitors searched major search engines like Google, Yahoo! Search, MSN Search and others, perhaps looking for answers.

During the same period, the market share of total Internet visits for real estate sites was up 19 percent, according to New York City-based Internet use tracker Hitwise.

"Increased traffic on real estate sites is reflective of the sector's growing adoption of Web-based technologies and databases, often used for digital storefronts, marketing, inventory listings and buyer financing," said Bill Tancer, Vice President of Research at Hitwise.

But many of them are looking for bubble trouble.

Earlier this year, four in ten of those surveyed for a Experian-Gallup Personal Credit Index said there's a likelihood that the housing bubble will burst within the next three years.

While 77 percent of those polled in the Experian-Gallup survey knew little or nothing about a housing bubble, when they were told a housing bubble is a condition of fast home price inflation that's difficult to sustain -- like an over-inflated bubble that eventually pops -- about 40 percent said there's a likelihood of a housing market crash in the next few years.

"Recent Internet search activity suggests that some activity in the category is being driven by curiosity of rising property values and the possibility of a bursting bubble.

Should we undergo a market decline, it will be interesting to see how site traffic and search activity correspond," said Tancer.

Hitwise said the Top 10 real estate websites ranked by market share of online visitors were:

1. Realtor.com (12.29 percent)

2. Rent.net (5.50 percent)

3. Homegain (3.06 percent)

4. Rent.com (2.68 percent)

5. Yahoo! Real Estate (2.02 percent)

6. RealtyTrac (1.80 percent)

7. REMAX Real Estate (1.70 percent)

8. Apartments.com (1.69 percent)

9. Century 21 Real Estate (1.68 percent)

10. MSN House & Home (1.42 percent)

Hitwise also found that online real estate website visitors are antsy.

The company said 25 percent of visits to real-estate sites originate directly from other real-estate sites. Once on a real estate-site 32.2 percent of visitors depart directly to another real-estate site; 5.5 percent go to a search engine; 4.8 percent go to an online bank or financial institution; and 4.9 percent will go to a portal home page.

In addition to the 25 percent that arrives directly from another real estate website, 22.1 percent are directed by a search engines; 8.1 percent by Web e-mail services; and 6.3 percent from portal home pages.

As indicated by other studies, more affluent consumers are more likely to browse for housing and related information.

That means real estate websites are not getting their message to a host of consumers who historically have been under served by the industry.

According to Hitwise, suburbanites with a median income of $60,000 and a home valued at a median of $200,000 are more likely to visit real estate sites than those from those living in affordable housing in the core of nation's smaller cities -- a mix of old and young, singles and widowers, whites, African-Americans and Hispanics, most of whom hold blue-collar jobs.

Published: July 20, 2005

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.