Real Estate Lead Cost Report for Buyers on Google | Q4 2022 Update

The cost for buyer leads on Google Ads in CINC's portfolio of real estate team and agent clients increased again during the fourth quarter of 2022.

Each of the top 20 markets had higher lead costs in Q4 2022 than the same period in 2021.

Fewer people are searching online for homes because of the overall softening of the housing market, which is continuing to drive down the overall quantity of leads. 

Overall spend levels across Google for real estate buyer leads has not decreased as much as the drop in traffic.  Thus, this is creating a temporary supply and demand challenge that is still working itself out.

Despite the overall increase in lead price, many markets still have low CPLs (cost per lead prices) and some markets even had year-over-year decreases in cost per lead.

We expect that the cost per lead will decrease during the first quarter of 2023.  Traditionally, the first quarter cost per lead is better than the fourth quarter lead cost as online home search traffic picks up for the busier spring season.

However, compared to the first quarter of 2022, buyer lead costs should be higher year-over-year in the first quarter of 2023, reflecting a continued decrease in home  buying search traffic year-over-year compared to early 2022 when interest rates were considerably lower.

CINC is the leader in online real estate lead generation with more than 50,000 clients. This behind-the-scenes lead cost data is what we were seeing for our portfolio of real estate team and agent clients during Q4 2022. The CINC client marketing team manages almost $30 million in search and social advertising spend annually for real estate teams and agents across the United States and Canada.  If you want to see how CINC can help you find more higher quality hyperlocal real estate leads on Google, request a demo here. 

Lowest Real Estate Lead Cost Markets for Buyers on Google

Bangor (Maine), Elmira (New York) and Bismarck (North Dakota) had the lowest real estate buyer lead costs of any market. Yakima had a super low $2.09 per lead.

The Northeast was well-represented with 3 cities in the Top 4 lowest cost per lead markets in the US.

Biggest Markets with Lowest Real Estate Lead Costs for Buyers on Google

St. Louis was the least expensive big market for leads, followed by Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia and Atlanta.  Chicago and San Francisco has the slowest growth in lead cost compared to the biggest markets.

Seattle and San Francisco have the most expensive lead prices at more than $11 per lead.

Biggest Real Estate Lead Cost Declines for Buyers on Google for Top 100 Markets

5 of the 6 markets that saw year-over-year decreases in lead cost in Q4 2022 were located in either Louisiana or in the Midwest.

Biggest Real Estate Lead Cost Increases for Buyers on Google for Top 100 Markets

Markets with three of the four largest CPL increases were located in Florida.  

Even though Hurricane Ian hit at the end of Q3, it did create some oddities in some of the Florida markets in parts of Q4. 

8 of the Top 10 Markets with the fastest growth in buyer lead costs were in the South. 

Real Estate Lead Cost for Buyers on Google for Top 100 Markets

Additional Google Real Estate Lead Gen Resources from CINC:

With buyer cost per lead up on Google in Q3, it is more important than ever to be more efficient paying for leads on Google.  Try our free local Google real estate targeting tool here to find hidden pockets of more cost effective hyper-local leads near you.

Watch our recent on-demand real estate lead gen webinar here where we discuss new trends for real estate teams and agents on Google Ads, including a deep dive on Google Local Service Ads (LSA's) for realtors.

Here are links to past historic Buyer Cost Per Lead Reports for Q3 2022, Q2 2022, Q1 2022, Q4 2021, Q3 2021, Q2 2021, Q1 2021, Q4 2020, Q3 2020, Q2 2020,  Q1 2020.