Google Search Magi

Change Is Coming To Google Search

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If you haven’t heard already, Google is set to launch a new AI-powered search experience, codenamed Project Magi, this month. The overnight popularity of AI from the likes of ChatGPT and Microsoft’s AI-powered Bing put Google in panic mode. Add to this the Amazon phenomenon that has taking ad dollars away from Google search and Samsung smartphones reportedly considering replacing Google with Bing as its handset default browser. Google has to change their search experience.

The company intends to focus on serving young people globally and to move away from the traditional “10 blue links” format of presenting search results. This shift will involve incorporating more human voices into the search engine’s results, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Wall Street Journal

How will this affect Real Estate websites in search?

It’s not news to say that people don’t peruse website link after link when searching anymore. Nor is it news to say that Zillow is where many go to do their home searching. This reality has been happening for years. Consumers simply prefer to spend their online time in apps that get it right. Whether that’s for social needs or house hunting.

Google has been accommodating to this for years and they are hoping to get in front of it with the new ‘Magi’ search experience. So searches will become more ‘visual, snackable, personal, and human’ with help of AI. And, so, we can expect to see even less of a list of websites meaning more erosion of click-through rates (CTRs).

What can you do to adapt to the new search experience?

We still don’t have first hand experience with the new Google Magi project…so it’s imposssible to say how this will play out. Here are some ideas though to avoid being caught flat footed.

  1. Put this on the radar of your website hosting company. They have likely heard about it…but ask for monthly updates.
  2. Individual Agents: Adapt your website to be a better online business card. The listing feed you have is a plus but it won’t beat Zillow’s app experience.
  3. 70% of all US digital media time comes from mobile apps. Think about getting your own simple branded real estate app. It’s easy to get and likely more affordable/effective than your website.
  4. Don’t panic:) You have time to adapt…unlike Google.

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Investors retreat from Atlanta housing market

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According to Redfin, investors bought 24.6% of Atlanta homes purchased in the fourth quarter, down from more than one-third (36.2%) a year earlier. While that’s still an enormous ammount, Atlanta is still the third-largest market share of investor home purchases.

Investor home purchases in metro Atlanta plummeted 62.8% in the fourth quarter of 2022 when compared to the same three-month span in 2021, the Redfin analysis showed. Investors accounted for a 24.6% share of purchased homes here in the fourth quarter, down from a 36.2% share in the year-ago period in 2021.

Redfin

Temporary Positive Relief

That’s positive news for Atlanta Buyers Agents, for the time being. They have less competition with fewer bidding wars. So, for now, enjoy the tremendous housing opportunity!

It’s possible that investors will start to wade back into the market this year given that mortgage rates have ticked down from their 2022 high—especially if home prices show signs of bottoming

Redfin Senior Economist Sheharyar Bokhari.

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Atlanta the top real estate market in 2023?

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Atlanta is trending towards being the housing market in the U.S. with the most potential for growth in the new year, according to researchers at the National Association of REALTORS®.

  • Housing affordability
  • The number of renters who can afford to buy a median-priced home
  • Job growth
  • Migration gains and population growth
  • An increase in active housing inventory
  • Less severe housing shortages.

“Atlanta has greater housing affordability than comparable cities, its population is growing more rapidly and 20% of renters there can afford to buy a median-priced home—higher than the national average—the NAR report notes. Atlanta also boasts a robust and growing job market, where many major technology companies, such as Apple, Microsoft and Visa, are relocating from the West Coast.”

National Association of REALTORS®

Markets were compared by weighing several housing and economic factors and comparing them nationally, including:

See The Positive

It’s wise to consider this in context with Atlanta’s real estate market cooling last year. The number of monthly pending home sales in metro Atlanta fell to a 12-year low in December, according to FMLS. Meanwhile, new listings dropped to the lowest monthly total in 10 years.

Those factors combined to make January metro Atlanta’s slowest month for home sales since January 2011. There were fewer than 2,800 sales last month, down 38% compared to January 2022 and a 67% decline from the monthly pandemic-era high in July 2020. In every downturn, however, their is a positive opportunity and Atlanta Agents and Homeowners will have one in 2023.

“The Atlanta real estate market has been rebalancing over the last several months, with the number of listings increasing and the total number of sales cooling from the records set last Spring,” reports Atlanta REALTORS® Association President Michael Fischer. “Historically, housing is in short-supply, but more balanced conditions will present Buyers with opportunities they haven’t seen in several months.”

Atlanta Realtors Association

The Metro Atlanta housing market, though, has recovered more positively relative to other markets. Although interest rates and inflation brought the 2022 real estate market back to reality, Atlanta continues to strengthen in factors that cushion more dramatic falls found in other markets.

“With interest rates continuing to pull back from recent peaks, we are expecting a busy spring market on the horizon as Atlanta continues to be a great place to live and work,” says Fischer.

Below are statistics supporting the NAR prediction.

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