Internet Inquiry Increase May Mean Bargain Hunting Growing

With foreclosures on the rise, the share of Internet inquiries that include the keyword "foreclosure" has jumped in recent weeks, according to HitWise, an online measurement company. The week of Feb. 2 had the highest share, probably because of increased media coverage of the top foreclosure cities, said HitWise research director Heather Dougherty. But queries also jumped in the weeks ending Feb. 28 and March 7 to their second and third highest levels, respectively, in the last three years. Searches for "free foreclosure listings" and "foreclosure listings" topped the list of terms containing the word "foreclosure" for the four weeks ending March 7, which Ms. Dougherty said, "confirms" that many potential buyers are seeking bargains. The downstream sites visited following a keyword search uncovered a number of what HitWise labels as "uncategorized" sites that offer databases. Sites under that label are either too new or too small to be tracked, the Experian subsidiary says. But they nevertheless bear watching as they grow and compete for traffic.