With world's worst air quality in NYC, 'sell my house fast' searches spike by 2,147%
While the Northeast chokes in hazardous air created by the smoke from Canada's wildfires, some New York homeowners are looking for immediate help to get out of Dodge.
New York City's air quality ranked as the worst of any major city worldwide Wednesday, surpassing New Delhi, India, according to a report from IQAir. The blanket of orange skies sitting over the Big Apple resulted in hazardous air quality for millions, and marked the city's worst air quality readings on record.
As authorities instructed residents to remain inside, some took to Google looking to sell their property.
An analysis of search data during the rare air quality event revealed that searches for "sell my home fast" exploded by 2,504% in the U.S., according to FindStorageFast.com, which commissioned the data. The search topic has soared by over 26 times the average volume in the past week.
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(FindStorageFast)
Similarly, the topic "sell my house fast" jumped by 2,147%, according to the data.
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The topic "sell my house fast" jumped by 2,147%. (FindStorageFast)
Google search data analysis also showed searches for "sell my house" soared by 326% on the same day – a quadruple increase in a week, according to D'Arcy Hunter Hunter, CEO and founder of FindStorageFast.
Statewide searches for "sell home" also increased by 307%.
Searches for 'sell home' have increased on Google. (FindStorageFast)
New York-based searches for "air purifier" shot up by 2,418% in the past week due to environmental conditions in New York City.
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New York-based searches for 'air purifier' have shot up by 2,418% in the past week. (FindStorageFast)
This comes as the U.S. housing market begins to slow down due to increased property prices and mortgage rates approaching 7%, up from 2% a year and a half ago, according to Hunter.
"As the housing market becomes a bigger challenge in America, it will be interesting to see if this spike translates into more listings and sales and what this may mean for the city's housing market long-term," he said.
According to Zillow, the average house price in New York is up 2.7% from last year at just under $650,000, and the median rent is $3,650 per month.