In 1981 The Corcoran Report started covering New York City real estate market trends. The market reports became widely quoted in the media and established Corcoran as the residential experts. The quarterly reports are considered the "bible" of market statistics and trends in the city.

In 1995 Corcoran.com was the first Manhattan real estate firm on the web.

In 2008 Corcoran began annual Consumer Reports from a series of survey questions on corcoran.com - a kind of window into the psychology of the market. Results of consumers thoughts on a variety of real estate and lifestyle-related topics are compiled in the report.

In 2010 Corcoran launched an iPhone app

The consumer reports can be dowloaded at http://www.corcoran.com/guides/index.aspx?page=ConsumerReport.

Many of the questions in the report are specific to Manhattan, I excluded them from this post and only included the #1 answer for each question. The information is useful for real estate agents to know what real estate consumer's are thinking.

I was suprised that only 9% of those polled communicate with their real estate agents face-to-face and to learn that the majority of respondents not only use an iPhone as their main mobile device, but that they have over 40 apps on them!  While over 60% of those polled said they were engaged in social media on some level, it still hasn’t caught on as a way to engage a real estate agent or find out about available properties.

Below are some of the results from the latest Consumer Report:

How do you primarily communicate with your real estate agent? Email 65%

How do you prefer to communicate with your real estate agent? By Email 52%

Have you ever contacted an agent to buy or sell an apartment based on an article you read? No 71%

Do you use social networking sites? 60% Yes

Would you hire a real estate agent you met through Facebook or Twitter? 76% No

How did you find your real estate agent? On the Web 40%

Did you ever refer your real estate broker to anyone else? Yes 59%

How many agents did/would you consider before hiring one to sell your property? Two 34%

When hiring an agent to list your property what is MOST important? Experience 40%

Have you ever worked with more than one real estate agent at a time when looking to buy? Yes 60%

When choosing a real estate firm to work with, is it important that it has a good website? Yes 92%

Do you look at real estate market research before deciding to buy or sell? Yes 77%

Do you prefer to see photos of a property you are interested in furnished or unfurnished? Unfurnished 51%

Do you surf real estate websites for fun Yes 70%

Are you actively looking to buy or rent? 85% Yes

Do you plan to move this year? 75% Yes

What is the #1 reason you would consider a new development? 48% Toatally New

Which of these design features is most important to you when buying in new development? Modern layout 24% Large windows 36% New kitchen 28% Latest tech 12%

Are you happy with your current home? No 58%

What age were you when you bought your first home? 20-30 50%

How long have you lived in your current home? 1-5 years 51%

Does a rainy day prevent you from going to an open house? Yes 54%

Do you go to fewer open houses in the winter months? Yes 58%

What’s more important for you in choosing a home? Neighborhood 72% (location, location, location)

Do you read the classifieds when looking for a new apartment or home? No 51%

How do you get your daily news? Online 78%

What type of mobile device do you have? iPhone 44%

Do you have a land line in your home? Yes 52%

Results aggregated from information gathered from corcoran.com’s interactive homepage poll, between April 2009 and March 2010. Average survey duration 7 days. All information copyright The Corcoran Group 2010.

Courtesy of:

Mitchell Hall, Associate Broker, The Corcoran Group