Chicago, a city where builders have continued to develop new projects, has been very responsive to the powerful concept of online advertising with Chicago Condos Page of the site, homebuyers have the ability to view 20 listings per page of Chicago's hottest new and pre-construction developments.

Some of the most recent projects added to the site, including Vision on State, The Flats on LaSalle, 565 Quincy, and Rainbo Village, have already been receiving hundreds of page views every day from interested new homebuyers. Each listing client on the site can display up to 8 photos of their project and have up to 8 embedded links directing homebuyers to the website for the project and its development team. One advanced feature on www.newcondosonline.com, referred to as the "E-Lead Program" actually allows an interested consumer to request more information regarding a new development by sending their contact details and inquiries directly to the sales office of the project.

According to Brandon Fishman, CEO at NewCondosOnline.com, "The Chicago Condo Market still looks relatively healthy. We currently advertise 23 new Chicago condo projects and our Chicago city page has been receiving excellent homebuyer traffic in 2007. We expect to double this number within the next six months."

When evaluating any market's conditions, existing inventory and saturation rate are a major concern to sellers and buyers alike. Less than six months of inventory is considered to be a sellers market, meaning that once completed, a new unit will take six months or less to sell. In Chicago there is currently 5.6 months of inventory overall, so although close to the edge, this is technically not in a buyer's market. Chicago's condo market is remaining somewhat stable although new developments have slowed in a market with a glut of new housing.

To remedy this, Kevin Schnitzler, Director of Sales at NewCondosOnline.com believes that online advertising is a crucial component to successful marketing and sales of all new developments in the Chicago land area. "Many sellers throughout the city have still reported difficulty in unloading units - even those who have slashed prices as much as 20% or more. Although we see a lot of cooperation from the majority of developers in Chicago who use our service, there are still those who are set in the more traditional advertising avenues of print, radio, and television media need to start understanding the power and scope of the internet in reaching out to homebuyers and investors in the marketplace."

Mr. Schnitzler referred to a recent study from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), indicating that 80% of all new homebuyers are using the internet as their primary research tool when shopping for a new home. "In most cases, a typical homebuyer will be browsing the internet for new prospective homes up to 6 months before ever contacting an agent," Schnitzler stated. According to the NAR study, when asked what was the most useful information source for learning about new homes, 73% of new homebuyers stated the internet, while only 20% said print, and 3% said Television.

"In Chicago, we are also seeing something very interesting by way of the type of new units being built right now" noted Mr. Fishman. "One third of all pre and new construction condo sales in are between $500-$700 a square foot. This is considered to be high end luxury pricing in today's market. The entry-level pricing of $300/square foot is quickly disappearing in new condo construction in Chicago." Thus, Mr. Fishman is pointing out that builders and developers are beginning to target high net-worth homebuyers and investors from out of state as well as internationally. "The internet is the most cost-effective way for developers of Chicago high end luxury condo projects to reach out of state and international buyers. It is a no-brainer for these builders to use our service because NewCondosOnline.com is designed to deliver web-traffic from local, out-of-state, and international homebuyers.    

new condo advertising website in the country. The Chicago page on NewCondosOnline.com alone receives around 5 million hits per month, accounting for nearly 70,000 unique visitors per month. The site optimizes over 80,000 condo-related search terms in the major search engines, has over 14,000 banners cross-linked with other real estate websites and blogs, as well as runs a national PR and media campaign to drive homebuyer traffic to its client's projects throughout the United States, Mexico, Canada, and Central America.