Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 19 May 2000 — Page 30
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THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER
FRIDAY, MAY 19, 2000
Internet revolutionizes home buying, survey shows
(Newstneam)—Nearly four in 10 buyers now use the Internet to shop for their next home, according to a new survey released today by the National Association of Realtors. NAR’s2000Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, the latest in a biennial seriesofsurveysevahiating marketing, demographic and other characteristics of home buyers and sellers, found that ^7 percent of all home buyers use the
Internet to find a home, an 18-fold increase in only four years. ‘The Internet is empowering consumers and making them more knowledgeable, said NAR President Dennis R.Qonk(www.dennisaonk.com).“In these times of low inventories in many local markets, many buyers are using the Internet to look for their next home quickly and easily.” The survey also found that Internet
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shoppers are more likely to use real estate agents than non-Internet shoppers. Eighty-seven percent of Web home shoppers use a real estate agent or broker, while 76 percent of traditional buyers work with an agent Despitethe sellers’ markets in many locales and predictions that the Internet would diminish the role of agents, the study found that only 16 percent of homes were sold directly by owners in 1999, a slight reduction from 18 percent in 1997. In previous hot markets, as many as 20 percent of owners would try to sell without an agent. Also, the median selling price of a home sold directly by an owner was $113,000, while the median selling price of a home sold by an agent was $ 129,900. ‘Technology has created a new delivery channel for real estate services, not replaced the old.” Cronk said. “Whether they are shopping on line or on foot, most consumers Still want a professional to interpret the data, negotiate the transaction, provide expert advice andclose the sale or purchaseof what's likely to be the largest transaction of their lives,” he said. The study found that Internet shoppers buy more expensive homes than do traditional buyers. According to the survey, the median home price paid by
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aWeb shopper in 1999was$138,000, while the median price of a home purchased by a non-Internet user was $120,000. Internet shoppers also earn more - $69,900 median income vs. $55,800. Realtor.com, NAR’s Web site, was the most popular Web site visited by buyers, cited by 61 percent of Intranet shoppers. "This comes as no surprise, since Realtor.com has mostoftheprop--erty listings available in the United States,” Cronk said. Dr. Fred Flick, NAR’s vice president of economic research, said firsttime homebuyers remain a significant part of the market, accounting for 42 percent of sales in 1999.“Astrongfirsttime buyer market is important to the entire housing market Without the generally good housing affordability we have today, people wouldn’t be able to buy their first home, and families who can’t sell their present house are unable to trade-up to a larger home to meet growing family needs,” Flick
noted.
The typical first-time buyer was 32 yearsold, compared to45 years old fa 1 repeat buyers. Entry level buyerseamed amedianincomeof$49,700vs. $68,600 for repeat buyers, and purchased a home costing $104,000 vs. $150,000 for repeat buyers. The typical down payment for first-time buyers was
$5,000, while repeat buyers made downpayments of $26,000 consisting largely of equity from their previous home. ,e For all buyers, the average length of time from contract to dosing was four weeks, compared with six weeks in 1997. The avenge home was on the market only six weeks in 1999, down fiomeightweeksin 1995and lOweeks in 1991.‘Technology is playingarole here as well, streamlining some of the steps necessary to complete the trans-
action,” Flick said.
Consumers continue to use a wide variety of sources in searching for a home, but when it comes to where people first leam about the home they actuaUy buy, 49 percent identified real estate agents. In addition, 15 percent said yard signs, eight percent newspaper ads and another eight percent from a friend, neighbor or relative. Ten other sources generated smaller numbers, including the Internet where four percent of buyers first learned about the
home they bought
“What this tells us is that buyers think it’s important to look far and wide to buy a home, but when it ctMnes right down to it real estate agents, along with their access to multiple listing services, are where the action is,” NAR president Cronk said. “In addition, the Internet is allowing buyers to shop and MINORITIES Continued from Page D1
educate themselves at their own pace and at their own convenience, making it easier for people to take the next big step in contacting a real estate agent,”
he added.
“However, agents who do not have a Web presence and are not technologically savvy are at a disadvantage in terms of being sought by the 37 percent of shoppers who look for a home on the Internet and are comfortable in using e-mail and technology.” Cronk said. Three-quarters of survey respondents said it was somewhat important for their real estate agent to be “Internet savvy.” Forty-six percent of buyers hired a buyer representative, and two-thirds of all buyers said they would definitely use the same real estate agent again in a future transaction. Not suiprisingly, the biggest factors influencing home purchases dealt mostly with location, including the neighborhood, price, work, school and families and friends. The survey was compiled from an eight-page questionnaire, mailed during the winter of 2000to20,000consumers who either bought or sold a home during 1999 based on courthouse deed records. The response rate was 9.4 percent. Previous surveys in this series were based on 10,000 questionnaires, generating comparable response rates.
retailing to the inner city, so this was want representation of these people on Moreover, Jordan, an Africansomething I wanted to do,” she says, yourboards/’saysRosieZamoraCope, American attorney who once headed adding that her financial background at a Foundation for Women Resources the Urban League, sits on the boaid of the Federal Reserve probably helped in board member and a Houston entre- J.C. Penney and radio chain AMFM her appointment to the Blockbuster preneur. Inc. board. , Certain industries have been more And Vilma Martinez, who once Getting more diverse corporate responsive to placing women and mi- headed the Mexican American Legal boards requires constant pressure from norities on their boards. Among them Defense and Education Fund, is a dithe company’s top brass and the com- are the telecommunications and bank- rector of three companies, including munity, says Dr. David Thomas, a ing industries. Dr. Thomas notes. Fort Worth-based Burlington NorthHarvard Business School professor. An oft-cited standout is San Anto- em Santa Fe Corp. But it’s “much more dependent on nio-based SBC Communications Inc., Hugh Robinson, the 67-year-old theattitudesandbeliefsofthechairman which has five white women, one Black CEOoftheTetraGroup,servesonfour and CEO to really shape the boards of woman and three Hispanics on its 21- boards and has two offers sitting on his their companies,” says the author of the member board. desk now. “I've been offered more book firea^gTTrrougfr, which exam- Other industries are known for be- boards of directors (positions) than I ines how minorities succeed in climb- ing much less responsive, according to can take,” he says. “It’s too much.” ingiQipKptfaJaddrafc t . .• „ . studies b*e*ecutiwAtflrtf*fiwis# At 5- Because so few women or minori-
AlleflBv# ascended to the topexecuti ve
York-based Executive Leadership industry, the studies have shown. ranks, some corporations have gone to Council, a group made up of the high- Among those Dallas-Fort Worth academia to find strong board candi-
est-ranking African-American execu- corporations with all-white-male dales.
lives in corporate America, and the boards are Atmos EnejgyCoq).,Cross Pastora San Juan Cafferty, a Uni-Washington-based Hispanic Associa- Timbers Oil Co., Ensco International vrasity of Chicago professor, is one tion on Corporate Responsibility have Inc., Pioneer Natural Resources Co. example. The 59-year-old Cubanbeen successful in exerting pressure on and Triton Energy Ltd. American has sat on the boaixi of Kimcorporations. Women who operate in the tradi- beriy-Clark Corp. since 1977, when Dr. Thomas adds civil rights activist tionally clubby male domain of the Oil very few women and even fewer HisJesse Jackson to his list as well. Patch are often fully aware of the situ- panics were chosen for corporate di-
Three years ago, Jackson launched ation, says Lue Gates-Weiss, a manag- rectorships,
the Wall Street Project, which uses ingdirectorofKom/Feny International, Cafferty credits her work with noneducation and negotiation to persuade one of the world’s largest executive profit corporations as preparation for companies to place more minonties on search firms. sitting on corporate America’s boards, corporate boards, as well as increasing ‘ ‘Females who have grown up in the “Wewereidentifiedasgoodcorpominority hiring and purchasing prod- industry are used to that,” says Gates- rate board material because of our ucts from minority-owned companies. Weiss, who specializes in the energy work with nonprofits,” she says. The Austin-based Foundation for industry. “When you recruit from the Cafferty sits on four corporate boards Women Resources, which runs leader- outside, then it’s something of a prob- and two nonprofit boards, ship programs for women, has been Iran.” Conventionally, getting on coipoagitating for more representation of It becomes easier for women mov- rate boards goes hand-in-glove with women on corporate boards for some ing into the eneigyindustiy's legal and getting into senior corporate positions, time. finance areas, as well as technology Women of color haven’t fared as One of its board members, former fields such as seismic monitoring, Mrs. well as minority men or white women Texas Gov. Ann W. Richards, sits on Gates-Weiss says. on that same career path, says the theboardofJ.C. Penney Co. of Plano. And deregulation of electrical utili- research firm Catalyst. ‘ ‘Half of consumers are women, so it ties has helped open up opportunities Women of color face a “concrete would stand to reason that you would for women on the utilities’ boards of ceiling,” says Catalyst, which recently
directors and in the executive ranks, completed a three-year study on AfriSince companies often choose di- can-American, Asian-American and
rectors who are active or retired CEOs Hispanic women,
from other companies,the same women and minorities often end up serving on several boards because so few of them have risen to the highest corporate
ranks.
‘ ‘Across racial lines, the same people
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The most-cited barriers are not having an influential mentor, lack of informal networking and lack of high-vis-
ibility assignments.
Rather than benefiting from being a “double minority,” women of color
sit on boards,” says Fletcher are morelikely to have a double disadGrundmann, research director of the vantage, says Dr. Thomas of the Hispanic Association of Corporate Harvard Business School. Responsibility. “It is a little more con- "Someofmyresearchonmentoring
spicuous when dealing with Hispanics and African Americans. Anyone can see that Vernon Jordan sits on six
boards.”
shows that women of color are the least likely choice by white male supervi-
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SOTS.
At some point, talented minorities
To cite another example, 13 His- and women should jast cut their losses panics sit on three or more corporate when hit with too many career deadboards each, according to the Wash- ends, the management experts say. ington-based Hispanic Association on That means leaving the corporation. Corporate Responsibility. In the’70s, Griego did just that in Linda Alvarado, president and CEO hercareer at Pacific Bell, now a unit of of her own Denver-based contracting SBC Communications of San Antofirm, Alvarado Construction Inc., is nio. She became one ofthe first female one of them. managers of an all-male installation
She’s a director of the heating and and repair crew,
air conditioning company, Lennox In- T could succeed on the soft side of (emotional Inc. of Richardson. the business,” Griego recalls, but “1 Fellow entrepreneur Armando found my glass ceiling in that world, Codina sits on five corporate boards, where it was very difficult for women The Miami resident’s corporate duties to advance in the nontraditional side of
include regular trips to Fort Worth to the business.''
attend board meetings of AMR Cop., Of course, there is a post for which the parent compraiy of American Air- Griego says she would happily return lines. back tothe phone company: adirector-