Affordable Prices Draw Investors to Real Estate

Nearly Half of Foreclosure Buyers Seek Investment Property

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Affordable prices and foreclosures are
attracting investors to the housing markets today, and the number of consumers
interested in investing in real estate has doubled since March 2009, according
to the new Move.com Homeownership Survey released today. Low prices and
foreclosure bargains have also become the most important reasons motivating
buyers today to purchase a home.

According to the Move.com survey, one out of eight (12.1%) homebuyers today
plan to purchase a home as an investment property, compared to 5.6 percent
seven months ago(1). Of those interested in buying a home for investment,
15.8 percent were men and 8.1 percent were women.

Foreclosure buyers, accounting for 25.3 percent of consumers interested in
purchasing a home, are a major source of potential investment activity for
today's housing market. Forty-two percent (42%) of potential foreclosure
buyers regard their purchases as investments, while 57.6 percent plan to live
in the foreclosed home themselves. Foreclosure investors, according to the
Move.com survey, intend to convert their foreclosures into rentals (13.2%),
fix them up for re-sale (11.3%), or house a family member until the home can
be sold at a profit (17.4%). Of the forty-two percent interested in
purchasing a foreclosure as an investment, survey respondents ages 35 to 49
(52.6%) were by far the largest demographic.

Expected Profits Gained From Purchase Discounts and Appreciation
The Move.com survey found foreclosure buyers expect to profit from both deeply
discounted purchase prices, as well as healthy appreciation rates over five
years. Most foreclosure buyers (58.2%) expect to pay 20 percent or less than
market price for a foreclosure, while 38.5 percent expect a 25 percent or
greater discount. While, 73 percent expect their properties to appreciate ten
percent or more in five years, 28 percent expect their purchases to appreciate
20 percent or more during that same investment horizon. According to the
Federal Housing Finance Administration's Purchase Index, homes have
appreciated an average of 15 percent nationally since 2004(2).

According to the Move.com survey, the most important reasons motivating
prospective home buyers and investors to purchase a house include concerns
that prices are as low as they will go (23.6%) and desire to take advantage of
foreclosure bargains (18.7%). The second most important reasons motivating
property purchases include taking advantage of the great selection of homes
for sale in their community (21.2%) and concern interest rates will rise
(14.2%).

"This latest Homeownership Survey validates what many had hoped to see in the
housing markets -- affordable prices and ample inventories are restoring the
appeal of real estate to investors while providing opportunities for first
time home buyers to enter the market," said Move, Inc., Chief Revenue Officer,
Errol Samuelson. "In today's environment, regardless of whether you're an
investor or interested in purchasing a home to live in yourself, residential
real estate is a more attractive investment today for many than it has been in
recent years."

First Time HomeBuyers, Shifts in Motivation, and Affordability
Despite today's challenging economy, demand for home ownership remains strong
and first time buyers make up a significant segment of all potential buyers.
Nearly ten percent (9.8%) of consumers say they plan to buy a home in the next
two years, with 5.4 percent planning to purchase in the next 12 months. Of
those planning to purchase a home in the near future, nearly half (48.3%) are
first time buyers, with women (52.8%) slightly more interested in entering the
housing market than men (44.1%).

While affordability and foreclosure bargains have consistently been the
primary reasons motivating homebuyers in the past four months, secondary
reasons have changed. In June 2009, interest in taking advantage of low
interest rates (21.1%) was cited as the second most important reason to buy.
Today, buyers are motivated more by the great selection of homes for sale in
their community (21.2%) as the leading secondary reason to purchase a home.

The Move.com survey also found that while perceptions related to affordability
have improved in four months, most Americans are still unaware of how
affordable homes are today. In June 2009, more than three-quarters (76.4%) of
Americans said they thought a family earning the national median income of
$52,029(3) could afford 50 percent or fewer of the homes for sale in their
area. Today only half (50.4%) of all Americans say a median income family can
afford 50 percent or fewer of the homes for sale in their neighborhood, a 26
percentage point improvement in just three months. In fact, a median income
family today can afford approximately 70 percent of the homes listed for sale
on the Move Network of real estate Web sites.(4)

"In the past year, affordability has improved significantly, especially for
first time home buyers, and is higher now than at any time the past two
decades(5)," said Samuelson. "Even more encouraging is that 34.1% of survey
respondents said they expect median income families will be able to afford
more than 50 percent of the homes in their neighborhood a year from now. This
sentiment is especially true with people ages 18 to 34, the nation's next
group of first time homebuyers."

Message to Washington
The October 2009 survey also found that the Federal government's approval
rating by consumers on housing issues has slipped slightly since March 2009.
By a six-percent margin, Americans said they don't think the government is
doing enough to stabilize the housing market (48.2% compared to 42.2%),
despite efforts to prevent foreclosures and keep interest rates low. However,
while 48.2% of respondents were negative about the government's job to
stabilize the housing market, the priorities consumers have for the government
related to housing haven't changed in the past year. According to the survey,
consumers still want low interest rates (31.4%) and action by the government
to help homeowners prevent foreclosures (28.5%), the same two top priorities
expressed by survey respondents in March 2009.

The survey found that public participation in the Making Home Affordable
programs to prevent foreclosures proved to be much lower than anticipated. In
March 2009, several days after the details of the programs were announced,
Move's Homeownership Survey found that 17.6 percent said they intended to
participate in the Administration's program. Seven months later, only 8.8
percent said they actually did participate.

Fear of Foreclosure Fades
While foreclosure filings reached record levels in the third quarter in 2009,
with one in every 136 American homes receiving a foreclosure filing(6),
homeowners today are actually less concerned that they or someone they know
may be facing foreclosure as compared to seven months ago. In March 2009, 52.5
percent of all survey respondents said they were concerned that they or
someone they know may face foreclosure in the next 6 to 12 months. That
number dipped slightly to 45.1 percent in October 2009. According to the
survey, fear of foreclosure today is greater among women (49.3%), with people
earning $50,000 or more annually (43.9%), and with people living in the South
(42.6%) and West (55%). The six states today with the highest rate of
foreclosures are California, Florida, Arizona, Nevada, Illinois, and Michigan.
These six states accounted for 62 percent of the nation's total foreclosure
activity in the third quarter of this year.(7)

The Economy, Refinancing and Shifts in Consumer Spending
The company's October 2009, Homeownership Survey found today's economy may be
impacting how homeowners that successfully refinanced their mortgage in 2009
(27.6%) are spending their refinancing gains. In June 2009, homeowners that
refinanced their mortgages said they used the monthly savings almost equally
to fund home remodeling or repairs (12.3%) and to pay living expenses (12.2%).
In addition, June 2009 survey respondents said they used 10.7 percent of the
monthly savings to fund retirement, 5.5 percent to fund tuition, and 5.3
percent to fund investments. However, in October 2009 homeowners that
successfully refinanced their homes said they used the savings to pay down
consumer debt (11.8%), to fund living expenses (11.9%), and to pay home
remodeling or repairs (9.6%). Use of the remaining monthly savings in October
2009 to fund tuition (3.7%), investments (3.6%) and retirement savings (5.1%)
was reduced by almost half as compared to allocations for these same
categories in June 2009.

This survey, the fifth in a series of quarterly Homeownership Surveys
commissioned by Move, Inc., is based on interviews conducted from October 16 -
18, 2009. A total of approximately 1,004 interviews were completed, with 526
female adults and 476 male adults. The margin of error on weighted data is +/-
3. The survey was conducted by OmniTel, a weekly national telephone omnibus
service of GfK Custom Research North America. The raw data are weighted by a
custom designed computer program, which automatically develops a weighting
factor for each respondent. This procedure employs five variables: age, sex,
education, race and geographic region. Each interview is assigned a single
weight derived from the relationship between the actual proportion of the
population with its specific combination of age, sex, education, race and
geographic characteristics and the proportion in our sample that week. Tabular
results show both weighted and unweighted bases for these demographic
variables.

ABOUT MOVE, INC.
Move, Inc. (Nasdaq: MOVE) is the leader in online real estate with 9.3
million(8) monthly visitors to its online network of websites. Move, Inc.
operates: Move.com®, a leading destination for information on new homes and
rental listings, moving, home and garden and home finance; REALTOR.com®, the
official Web site of the National Association of REALTORS®; Welcome Wagon®;
Moving.com; SeniorHousingNet(TM); and Top Producer® Systems. Move, Inc. is
based in Campbell, California.

This press release may contain forward-looking statements, including
information about management's view of Move's future expectations, plans and
prospects, within the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve known and unknown
risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the results of Move,
its subsidiaries, divisions and concepts to be materially different than those
expressed or implied in such statements. These risk factors and others are
included from time to time in documents Move files with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, including but not limited to, its Form 10-Ks, Form 10-Qs
and Form 8-Ks. Other unknown or unpredictable factors also could have material
adverse effects on Move's future results. The forward-looking statements
included in this press release are made only as of the date hereof. Move
cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or
achievements. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on these
forward-looking statements. Finally, Move expressly disclaims any intent or
obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent
events or circumstances.

(1) March 2009 Move, Inc., Homeownership Survey
(2) FHFA Purchase Index June 2004 to June 2009.
(3) U.S.Census Bureau 2008
(4) Calculation assumes national median income per month, 20 percent down,
30-year fixed mortgage and 25 percent of gross income allocated to mortgage.
(5) National Association of REALTORS® Affordability Index
(6) October 2009, RealtyTrac Report
(7) RealtyTrac news release, U.S. FORECLOSURE ACTIVITY INCREASES 5 PERCENT IN
Q3, October 15, 2009.
(8) comScore Media Metrics, September 2009

SOURCE Move.com

Julie Reynolds, +1-818-264-5594, Julie.reynolds@move.com, or Pierre Kacsinta,
+1-805-557-3128, Pierre.kacsinta@move.com, both of Move.com; or Victor White,
+1-415-904-7070, move@accesspr.com, for Move.com