Homes.com Skyrockets Past 100 Million Unique Visitors in September

Rhea-AI Summary

Homes.com achieves major milestone with over 100 million unique visitors, surpassing competitors Redfin and Realtor.com. CoStar Group's network of real estate portals brings in 160 million unique visitors in September, more than Realtor.com and Redfin combined. Homes.com's growth is built on its unique business model and user-friendly experience. Breaking through 100 million unique monthly visitors mark is significant in the industry. Homes.com provides a strong alternative for lead generation without usurious commission splits.

Positive

• Homes.com grew 1290% YoY, surpassing Redfin and Realtor.com with over 100 million unique visitors
• CoStar Group's network of real estate portals brought in 160 million unique visitors in September

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• None.

Homes.com Grew 1290% Year over Year, Surpassing Competitors Redfin and Realtor.com

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- CoStar Group (NASDAQ: CSGP), an S&P500 leading provider of online real estate marketplaces, information, and analytics, today announced Homes.com achieved a major milestone in September with over 100 million unique visitors, now positioning Homes.com as one of the two most heavily trafficked real estate portals in the U.S.

Homes.com’s 100 million unique monthly visitors beat direct competitor Realtor.com, who recently reported 74 million monthly unique visitors, and Redfin, who recently reported 52 million unique visitors.* In total, CoStar Group’s network of U.S. real estate portals brought in 160 million unique visitors in September, which is more traffic than Realtor.com and Redfin generated combined.

Homes.com’s unparalleled growth is built on its unique “your listing, your lead” business model which, unlike other real estate portals, connects home shoppers directly to a sale property’s listing agent, who is the best source of information for that listing. Homes.com is also advantaged with a clear and intuitive user experience that is free from random distracting ads. Home buyers live in more than just a house. They live in a house within a community defined by its parks, schools, shopping, happenings, and people, so Homes.com has photographed, researched, and produced tens of thousands of in-depth neighborhood guides to help home buyers find their perfect house in a community they love.

“We set out to deliver an agent friendly site that homebuyers would love, and we believe 100 million unique visitors in September is evidence we have achieved that goal,” said Andy Florance, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of CoStar Group, which owns and operates Homes.com. “We believe that the millions of leads we are generating by connecting home buyers directly to agents is generating billions of dollars of commissions for those agents. Our entire team is focused on continuing to build even more value for home shoppers and agents over the next six months. We intend to begin monetizing the significant value we are creating in the second quarter of 2024.”

Homes.com breaking through the 100 million unique monthly visitors mark has important significance in U.S. residential real estate at a time when the industry is grappling with the potential seismic impact of class action lawsuits challenging the buyer-broker commission rule, which has been a fundamental construct of agent compensation. The Sitzer/Burnett v. NAR lawsuit is scheduled for trial this month and several defendants have already agreed to collectively pay $138 million in settlements and to changes to the rule. The first-generation real estate portals have been leveraging this threatened buyer-broker commission rule to divert listing leads from all the agents in the market to a small handful of agents who are then required to split their commissions with the portal. Many agents and brokers strongly resent that model. Now that Homes.com is one of the most heavily trafficked portals, there is a strong and viable alternative for lead generation available to agents that does not require usurious commission splits. Unlike the first-generation portals, Homes.com’s business model is not negatively impacted by the potential end of the buyer-broker commission rule.

Homes.com’s growth comes alongside a time of significant growth and expansion for the wider company. Founded in 1986, CoStar Group now has over 5,600 employees across 14 countries.

About CoStar Group

CoStar Group (NASDAQ: CSGP) is a leading provider of online real estate marketplaces, information, and analytics in the property markets. Founded in 1987, CoStar Group conducts expansive, ongoing research to produce and maintain the largest and most comprehensive database of real estate information. CoStar is the global leader in commercial real estate information, analytics, and news, enabling clients to analyze, interpret and gain unmatched insight on property values, market conditions and availabilities. Apartments.com is the leading online marketplace for renters seeking great apartment homes, providing property managers and owners a proven platform for marketing their properties. LoopNet is the most heavily trafficked online commercial real estate marketplace with over twelve million monthly global unique visitors. STR provides premium data benchmarking, analytics, and marketplace insights for the global hospitality industry. Ten-X offers a leading platform for conducting commercial real estate online auctions and negotiated bids. Homes.com is the fastest growing online residential marketplace that connects agents, buyers, and sellers. BureauxLocaux is one of the largest specialized property portals for buying and leasing commercial real estate in France. Business Immo is France’s leading commercial real estate news service. Thomas Daily is Germany’s largest online data pool in the real estate industry. Belbex is the premier source of commercial space available to let and for sale in Spain. CoStar Group’s websites attract over 160 million unique monthly visitors. Headquartered in Washington, DC, CoStar Group maintains offices throughout the U.S., Europe, Canada, and Asia. From time to time, we plan to utilize our corporate website, CoStarGroup.com, as a channel of distribution for material company information. For more information, visit CoStarGroup.com

* In September 2023, Homes.com surpassed 100 million monthly unique visitors, according to Google Analytics, exceeding Realtor.com’s 74 million monthly average unique visitors for its fiscal fourth quarter as reported in its earnings release on August 10, 2023, and Redfin’s 52 million monthly average unique visitors for the quarter ended June 30, 2023 as reported in its Form 10-Q filed August 3, 2023.

This news release and the Company’s earnings conference call contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements about CoStar Group's plans, objectives, expectations, beliefs and intentions and other statements including words such as “hope,” “anticipate,” “may,” “believe,” “expect,” “intend,” “will,” “should,” “plan,” “estimate,” “predict,” “continue” and “potential” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Such statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of management of CoStar Group and are subject to many risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from the results anticipated in the forward-looking statements and the assumptions and estimates used as a basis for the forward-looking statements. The following factors, among others, could cause or contribute to such differences: the risk that CoStar is unable to develop additional features for Homes.com in the expected timeframe or at all; the risk that agents and consumers do not increase use of Homes.com as expected; and the risk that CoStar is unable to monetize Homes.com in the expected timeframe or at all. More information about potential factors that could cause results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those stated in CoStar Group’s filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), including in CoStar Group’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022 and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2023 and June 30, 2023, each of which is filed with the SEC, including in the “Risk Factors” section of those filings, as well as CoStar Group’s other filings with the SEC (including Current Reports on Form 8-K) available at the SEC’s website (www.sec.gov). All forward-looking statements are based on information available to CoStar Group on the date hereof, and CoStar Group assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231002129254/en/

News Media Contact

Matthew Blocher

CoStar Group

(202) 346-6775

mblocher@costargroup.com

Source: CoStar Group