Turning traffic into sales – it's not easy

One of the ways Appraisal Research Counselors keeps tabs on the downtown market is by tracking buyer traffic to sales centers and open houses on a weekly basis. ARC can then compare this data with weekly sales figures to determine how many visits actually result in contracts.

These conversion ratios don’t show up in the executive summaries we receive every quarter, but they were a part of Gail Lissner’s presentation at last week’s 2010 Economic Forecast panel hosted by the Chicago Association of Realtors. According to one of Gail’s slides, just 4 percent of visits to downtown developments resulted in sales last year, down from a peak of 11 percent in 2006.

The yearly percentages for the past eight years are:

  • 2002: 7%
  • 2003: 6%
  • 2004: 8%
  • 2005: 8%
  • 2006: 11%
  • 2007: 8%
  • 2008: 3%
  • 2009: 4%
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