Media Data as Predictor of Real Estate Prices

A depiction of U.S. real estate sentiment since Jan 2019.

The blue bars are the Russell 1000 stock index. The purple line is average commercial real estate sentiment, which is higher now that workers are going back to the office post-COVID. The green line is residential real estate sentiment, which is as low as it has been since 2011 due to rising mortgage rates.

Sentiment is measured in the U.S. business news and social media from references to each asset class.

Academic research has found such media data is one of the strongest predictors of real estate prices (after interest rates).