Sometimes I sit down to write this and the words pour out. Other times, like today, I struggle with where and how to start. I went to college not knowing what I wanted to do and after many conversation with my parents about different majors and how that would impact my career, I landed on majoring in English with a dream of writing for a magazine. This really dates me. My dream came true right out of the gate; I’ve mentioned it here before. But I didn’t stay for long and my career took many twists and turns until the connections I’d made at the magazine brought me to my digital marketing career.
At ONeil I get to combine all of my favorite subjects: real estate & housing, technology, marketing, and writing. Everyone should be so lucky as I am to do what they love every day, surrounded by people who lift each other up and do the most kick ass work in all the land and to do it all while living a full and blessed life. So even on days like today when the writing doesn’t flow, I still look forward to the efforts I put forth here. And it’s a double bonus because I end up learning a ton reading through all of the articles to find the ones I ultimately post here.
I’m really interested in what this housing market is doing, how it impacts our clients and where it’s headed. Today that means sharing articles about how we got here and where we’re headed. Alongside that there are a couple noteworthy happenings from Instagram and Nextdoor as well as an update on the impacts of iOs 14.5 and ATT.
HOUSING HOOPLA
I’m not the only one who’s curious about the housing market. CNBC had a lot to say on the matter and this article sums it all up nicely. As we know, the market isn’t this way strictly because of Covid. There’s been a shortage and it’s only become exacerbated. That shortage and the demand for housing isn’t going away. Therefore, neither is the increasing cost.
“Growth in housing inventory has slowed over the past decade in the aftermath of the 2008 housing crisis, creating an “underbuilding gap” of 5.5 million to 6.8 million housing units across the country since 2001, according to a recent report from the National Association of Realtors.”
Housing Wire has a great chart to go with this article that shows the market trend over the last quarter century. Unless you subscribe you can’t read the whole thing but the chart itself is enough to explain the bubble that wasn’t.
VIDEO KILLED THE RADIO STAR… AND INSTAGRAM
Not really, Instagram will be around for a long time to come but they recently announced that they’re no longer a photo sharing app. This has lots of content creators in a kerfuffle too. Essentially, Instagram has admitted that they are placing a lot of weight in their algorithm on their video products, most importantly, Reels, the TikTok competitor. I feel like with each iteration of a social network, everyone gets all worked up over the change and then they settle in and life goes on. In order to stay in the game, they have to evolve but change is hard. I don’t love reels myself, but we’re here now so we better embrace the change.
NEXTDOOR IS GOING PUBLIC
I’m not such a big fan of Nextdoor. In theory, it’s a way to bring communities together and help each other. In execution (at least for me) it’s a place to find out which neighbor is a racist loon (tends to be someone with an inordinate amount of time on his hands and a frequent poster) and who has an external video security camera (why do people love to post these videos?). But I guess this is not the case for many, because Nextdoor has announced that it’s going public. Incidentally, Nextdoor is one of those spaces that I had always hoped would be a good place for our clients to place ads but has, as yet, not come through with an offering that is the right fit.
ANDROID IS WHERE IT’S AT
The short term results of Apple’s new anti-tracking update, is that it’s driving ad impressions to Android devices. In turn, the cost of advertising on Apple devices has declined. If the ads aren’t trackable, then marketers don’t want to waste money on clicks that essentially go into the ether and disappear. And this is at the heart of the great debate on whatever will replace the cookie. Tracking matters, it’s the heartbeat of digital marketing. It’ll take a while for people to adjust to a lack of it. But as with the evolution of Instagram and other social networks, so too much marketers adapt and change.
There you have it. The long and short of what is happening in the news as it relates to home builders and home builder marketing. Happy Friday!
