We’re excited to share newly updated Online Sales Benchmarks for the third quarter of 2021. As many of us prepare for 2022 and what the year will bring for new home sales, it’s beneficial to assess where the industry currently stands.

As always, we take pride in having access to a wide range of builder data that we carefully analyze to bring you the most accurate information to help you make informed decisions now and going into the new year. We maintain the integrity of the data by making sure the data points are tracked consistently among the builders and online sales specialists who share their numbers with us.

The trends we’ve identified in “The Takeaways” give us a snapshot of how potential homebuyers are engaging with builders online. These observations for the third quarter include diminished buyer urgency, continued strong online sales contribution numbers, more inventory leading to increased lead to appointment numbers, and the need for builders to keep leads engaged by providing clear and early “next steps."

- Buyer urgency is waning in the 3rd quarter, requiring builders to shift back to the foundational lead nurturing process. In addition, builders have maximized pricing on homes which is causing some buyer reluctance.

- In most cases, customers continue to assume they are required to talk to an OSC before going onsite, keeping the online sales contribution strong despite builders purposefully slowing or halting sales in many markets and communities

- Lead to appointment numbers are increasing as more inventory was released in the third quarter, which opened up the ability to set more appointments.

- Leads seem to become “stale” quickly if builders don’t offer a clear next step to take beyond being on a list. Builders should get creative about what early next steps they can guide prospects through - because just telling them to wait is sooooo Feb of 2021.

You can view previous benchmarks here, and we’ll continue to keep you updated in the coming months.