CoStar Offers ESRI Business Data for Real Estate

16 April 2010, 4:20am

Redlands, California — April 16, 2010 — ESRI announces that CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ-CSGP), the number one provider of information, marketing, and analytic services to the commercial real estate industry, is licensing ESRI geographic information system (GIS) demographic data and software. The new agreement gives customers online access to data that is more precise and up-to-date than ever before. CoStar customers, including retailers, owners, brokers, and appraisers, will be able to benefit immediately from the new demographic and business information.

"CoStar chose ESRI as our demographic data supplier based on our confidence in ESRI's veteran team of demographers, statisticians, economists, and analysts," says Bob Evatt, vice president, software development, CoStar Group. "Their high level of expertise and professionalism ensures that CoStar subscribers will receive the most accurate demographic data available."

The data CoStar is licensing includes demographics, business and employment data, and consumer spending information with current-year estimates and five-year projections. It is integrated into two online applications, CoStar Property Professional and CoStar Comps Professional, that are used to find information and perform analyses on geographic areas around commercial properties.

"The CoStar partnership reaffirms the value of high-quality, accurate data that can be easily embedded in spatial analysis," says Simon Thompson, director of global commercial marketing, ESRI. "Our mutual clients in the real estate market gain immediate benefit from this partnership, which builds on the core strengths and expertise of both companies."

Properties can be searched based on specific demographic criteria and compared to other properties based on their surrounding demographic characteristics. ESRI created standard radius trade areas around every commercial real estate property in CoStar's database, representing about 5.2 million listings, using ESRI Business Analyst GIS software. Subscribers can generate up to 7 demographic reports and 14 individual demographic charts and export demographic data for each property.

CoStar will use ESRI software to calculate trade area demographics as new properties are added to its database, giving CoStar customers in-depth information about available real estate. Being able to incorporate new data on the company's Web site as it becomes available makes CoStar more responsive to an ever-changing marketplace.

For more information about how ESRI software and data is used in the commercial real estate market, visit the link below.

ESRI and real estate

Geo: International