2015 Home-Selling Season Kicks Off Today with Signs More Homeowners Than Ever Want to Sell Their Most-Valuable Asset Themselves

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

The home-selling season kicks off in earnest today with newly released data from ForSaleByOwner.com, the nation's leading provider of self-directed real-estate sales, indicating 2015 could be the biggest year yet for the category.

In the first three months of 2015, seller traffic to ForSaleByOwner.com was up more than 200 percent over the comparable period in 2014, reflecting increased interest among homeowners who seek to sell their most-valuable asset themselves¹. Additionally, ForSaleByOwner.com noted that the average value of homes sold in the first quarter of 2015 was up 2.2 percent over the same period last year, from $254,750 to $260,385, which is 11 percent more than the national average for agent-assisted home sales². In all, homeowners who used ForSaleByOwner.com to sell their home collectively saved $28.2 million in real-estate commissions in the first quarter of 2015³.

"As the leading for-sale-by-owner site, ForSaleByOwner.com has direct insight into all aspects of how consumers sell and buy homes nationwide, and we are seeing more homeowners than ever before considering selling their houses on their own," said Eddie Tyner, Senior Vice President and General Manager of ForSaleByOwner.com, a Tribune Publishing site. "We are in an era of empowered consumers who have more information at their fingertips, allowing them to make informed decisions about how to market and price their homes for maximum return."

In advance of the kickoff of the 2015 home-selling season, ForSaleByOwner.com also revealed the top 20 states where homeowners successfully sold their homes on their own using the site. According to data from ForSaleByOwner.com, 11 of the top 20 states are in the South, with six of the top 20 in the Midwest, and three in the East, reflecting strong return of the housing markets in those regions.

The top 20 states, which accounted for nearly 80 percent of all ForSaleByOwner.com home sales in 2014, were:

1. Texas
2. Louisiana
3. Florida
4. Illinois
5. Michigan
6. New York 
7. Ohio
8. New Jersey
9. Alabama 
10. Georgia
11. Indiana
12. Tennessee
13. North Carolina
14. Pennsylvania
15. Kentucky
16. Wisconsin
17. South Carolina
18. Virginia
19. Missouri
20. Arkansas

In the coming months, ForSaleByOwner.com will introduce additional resources to help potential buyers find their perfect homes. The new features will let prospective buyers search not just by home value or number of bedrooms but factors such as school rankings and other community amenities.

Additional industry trends and information are available in ForSaleByOwner.com's Real Estate Outlook report, available here.

About ForSaleByOwner.com

Backed by Tribune Publishing, ForSaleByOwner.com is the nation's leading "by owner" real-estate site, providing consumers with all resources needed to sell and buy properties on their own. By offering a wide variety of listing packages, advertising services, tools and resources to fit any budget, ForSaleByOwner.com empowers consumers to make smarter, more-informed decisions. ForSaleByOwner.com launched in 1999 as one of the first players in the DIY real-estate market. Today, the company is the largest entity in the category, with five times the number of monthly unique visitors of its closest competitor.

About Tribune Publishing

Tribune Publishing Company TPUB is a diversified media and marketing solutions company that delivers innovative experiences for audiences and advertisers across all platforms. The Company's diverse portfolio of iconic news and information brands includes 10 award-winning major daily titles, more than 60 digital properties and more than 180 verticals in markets, including Los Angeles; Chicago; South Florida; Orlando; Baltimore; Carroll County and Annapolis, Md.; Hartford, Conn.; Allentown, Pa., and Newport News, Va. Tribune Publishing also offers an array of customized marketing solutions, and operates a number of niche products, including Hoy and El Sentinel, making Tribune Publishing the country's largest Spanish-language publisher. Tribune Publishing is headquartered in Chicago. For more information, please visit www.tribpub.com.

(TPUB-C)

¹ Based on ForSaleByOwner.com internal traffic statistics from Jan. 1 – March 26, 2015.
² Based on ForSaleByOwner.com Q1 2015 customer exit survey data and National Association of Realtors 2014 profile of home buyers and home sellers.
³ Based on ForSaleByOwner.com Q1 2015 customer exit survey data using a typical 6 percent agency commission.