BETHESDA, Md. (Map) - BETHESDA, Md., May 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CoStar Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: CSGP), the number one provider of commercial real estate information/marketing solutions, today announced that the total number of for sale and for lease listings in its online database of commercial real estate information surpassed one million listings this week. This unprecedented amount is believed to be the largest number of commercial property listings ever assembled by a single information provider.

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According to CoStar Group Founder and CEO

"CoStar pioneered the concept of commercial real estate firms outsourcing their property information functions 20 years ago, fundamentally changing the way commercial real estate professionals access, use and share property information," Florance said. "The astounding number of listings being accessed today across CoStar's information platform by tens of thousands of users throughout the U.S. and U.K. is a clear indication of how far the industry has changed from the outmoded and inefficient paper-based information exchange of the past, to the greater efficiency, increased productivity and cost-savings that result from using CoStar."

Among the major information providers currently serving commercial real estate, only CoStar can bring the resources of a more than 900-person research team to actively seek out, confirm and update listing information on commercial properties.

From a competitive market share perspective, Florance said the million-plus listings in CoStar's database far outpaces the amount of listings available from other commercial real estate listing firms. "There's no comparison. In fact, based on the listing totals reported by our next largest competitors in both the U.S. and U.K., CoStar has more listings than both of them combined," he said.

As confirmed by CoStar Research, the one-millionth property listing is a three-level storefront retail and office building at 1674-76 Lombard Street in San Francisco listed with CoStar this week by Cyrus Weiss of Ritchie Commercial, a longtime CoStar client.

To commemorate this important milestone, Mr. Florance personally visited Mr. Weiss to thank him for listing his property with CoStar, and to inform him that he had won a new Toyota Prius hybrid car. While thrilled to learn that his was the one millionth listing on CoStar, Mr. Weiss responded that he no longer drove a car and that he preferred that his prize be awarded in CoStar stock!

CoStar agreed and plans to deposit $25,000 into an account of Mr. Weiss' choosing that he can then use to purchase CoStar stock.

Mr. Weiss uses CoStar Group information services to search for properties and to market his listings. With one call to CoStar Research, Mr. Weiss made his listing available to three key audiences as part of CoStar's multiple channel, 'one-stop shop' service: to other commercial real estate service providers through CoStar Property Professional(R); to Ritchie Commercial's client base through the firm's web site via CoStar Connect(R); and to an enormous online audience that visits http://www.CoStar.com, which includes 1.3 million unique visitors quarterly, all of whom have access to his listing through CoStar Showcase(R).

About CoStar Group

CoStar Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: CSGP) is the number one provider of commercial real estate information/marketing services to commercial real estate professionals in the United States and United Kingdom. CoStar's suite of services offers customers access via the Internet to the most comprehensive database of commercial real estate information throughout the U.S. as well as in the United Kingdom and France. Headquartered in Bethesda, MD, the company has approximately 1,300 employees, including the largest professional research organization in the industry. For more information, visit http://www.costar.com.

This news release includes "forward-looking statements" including, without limitation, statements regarding CoStar's expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. These statements are subject to many risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. More information about potential factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward- looking statements include, but are not limited to, those stated in CoStar's filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including CoStar's Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007 and CoStar's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2008, under the heading "Risk Factors." In addition to these statements, there can be no assurance that CoStar's database of commercial real estate information has the largest number of commercial property listings ever assembled by a single information provider; that all subscribers will experience greater efficiency, increased productivity and cost-savings from using CoStar; that Mr. Weiss will ultimately choose to purchase CoStar stock with his award; and that the Ritchie Commercial listing will be accessible as indicated in this release. All forward-looking statements are based on information available to CoStar on the date hereof, and CoStar assumes no obligation to update such statements.