Online real estate ad spending accelerates

Borrell Associates, a research and consulting firm focused on classified spending, reported today that online real estate advertising grew from 10.3% of overall real estate marketing spend in 2004 to 14.7% in 2005 - a 43% increase. Online spending is now expected to reach 32.1% of real estate marketing dollars in 2010, eclipsing the amount spent on newspapers (which will shrink to 30.4% in 2010).

Total real estate ad spend by the real estate industry was $11.7 billion in 2005, and is expected to shrink to $9.6 billion in 2010, according to Borrell. But 32.1% of that pie is still more than $3 billion dollars expected to be spent by real estate agents online in just four years.

That's amazing, but clearly backed by the accelerating growth Borrell is already seeing across the industry.

Borrell's report this morning is full of fascinating insights. We'll blog more of them here in the coming days.