Measuring Buyer Demand From Showing Appointments
Measuring buyer demand in a different way, the ShowingTime Showing Index compares the number of appointments made for virtual or in-person showings to the number of properties on the market. The index began tracking numbers in 2014, which it uses as a baseline. The index’s president told the New York Times that this is unique because there are not many indexes providing context for upcoming sales. The index dropped dramatically in April, but experienced the largest jump recorded in September, which confirms spikes in demand.
The figures below are drawn from ShowingTime’s scheduling products, which are used to book home showings by many of the major brokerages including Coldwell Banker, Sotheby’s, Century 21, Douglas Elliman, Compass, Redfin and others. In September, about seven million showings were booked nationally, raising the total for 2020 to just over 60 million.
While the rebound is good for sellers and brokers who make those sales, for buyers it’s a further illustration of how challenging it is to buy a home today. There just aren’t enough to go around.