Realtor.com improves market share in Hitwise rankings

Top-ranking Realtor.com improved its market share of visitors in August based on total online traffic to real estate Web sites, according to the latest report on online visitors by metrics company Hitwise, and HouseValues.com rejoined the top-20 list as the 18th-ranked site after slipping to 23rd in July.

Hitwise reported that Realtor.com, which is consistently the most popular real estate category Web site based on total number of visits, improved its market share from 8.37 percent in July to 9.44 percent in August, and second-place RealtyTrac, which offers information on foreclosure properties, grew its market share from 3.69 percent in July to 4.09 percent in August.

Realtor.com’s August market share was the highest since it reached 9.85 percent in December 2006, Hitwise reported.

The rankings of nine of the top 10 companies were intact from July to August. ZipRealty.com improved from 11th in July to ninth in August, switching places with MSN Real Estate’s realestate.msn.com Web site.

ServiceMagic.com, a site owned by InterActiveCorp that links homeowners with contractors, improved from 15th in July to 12th in August in the Hitwise rankings. And Coldwell Banker Real Estate’s ColdwellBanker.com Web site improved from 19th in July to 17th in August. Century 21.com, Homes.com and ForRent.com all moved down two places in the top-20 rankings from July to August, Hitwise reported.

ApartmentGuide.com, which ranked 18th in July and 11th in June, fell from the top-20 list in August. And Rentors.org, which ranked 20th in July, was also absent from the top-20 list in August.

The average visit duration to real estate category Web sites was 11 minutes and 10 seconds in August, compared with 11 minutes and seven seconds in July.

The top 10 real estate Web sites received 30.3 percent of all visits to real estate category Web sites in August, compared with 29.2 percent in July. Sites ranked 11th through 20th received 11.2 percent of all visits in August, compared with 11.4 percent in July. And sites ranked 21st through 100th on the Hitwise list accounted for 28.3 percent of total real estate category Web visitors in August, compared with 28.4 percent in July.

Real estate sites that joined the Hitwise top-100 list in August include the National Association of Realtors’ Realtor.org site, which bumped up to 89th from 109th; FidelityMLSSolutions.com, from 102nd to 90th; ActiveRain.com, from 108th to 92nd; RMLS.com, from 103rd to 95th; RealEstateShows.com, from 101st to 96th; RentalHomesPlus.com, from 111th to 97th; eHouseHunting.com, from 104th to 99th; and GAMLS, from 129th to 100th.

Sites that left the top-100 rankings include RentClicks.com, which fell from 76th in July to 1,004th in August — parent company Primedia announced earlier this year that it had acquired RentalHouses.com and planned to combine that site with RentClicks.com, HomeRentalAds.com and ApartmentGuide.com under its Rentals.com Web site.

INest.com dropped from 88th to 102nd in the Hitwise real estate rankings; HomeListingd-USA.com, from 90th to 129th; KBHome.com, from 91st to 108th; HomeRentals.net, from 95th to 109th; BuyOwner.com, from 96th to 118th; ForeclosuresToGo.com, from 98th to 103rd; and RE/MAX site IllinoisProperty.com, from 99th to 115th.

The top-ranked search terms that delivered Web users to real estate category Web sites during the four weeks ending Sept. 1 were: “Realtor.com,” “remax,” “real estate,” “apartments,” “century 21,” “zillow.com,” “apartments for rent,” “coldwell banker,” “homes for sale,” and “for sale by owner.”

Hitwise also identifies fast-moving Web sites that have made substantial gains in ranking during the past four months ending in August. NextRentals.com, which offers search engines and national listings of apartments for rent, jumped 188 places. Brokerage company Prudential California’s PruCalifornia.com site jumped 187 places; Find a Realtor’s Local-Real-Estate-Agents.com site, which allows users to find and compare real estate agents, gained 175 places, and the HomeVestors of America Atlanta (HomeVestors is the “We Buy Ugly Houses” company) site at Atlanta.HomeVestors.com gained 158 places.

Other fast-moving sites include SelectLeaders.com, a real estate job network Web site, which moved up 144 places; MatureLivingChoices.com, which features properties for sale and rent, moved up 94 places; HomePages.com, a property-search site operated by HouseValues, moved up 79 places; and VegasTodayandTomorrow.com, which offers information on hotel and condo projects in Las Vegas and future urban development projects, moved up 71 places; Stan White Realty and Construction’s OuterBanksRentals.com moved up 58 places and RealTourVision.com, a virtual tour company, moved up 54 places.

Source: Hitwise, based on August site visits