Home-improvement lead-generation site ServiceMagic elbowed its way past Rent.com and Trulia.com to take the fifth position on Hitwise’s list of most visited real estate-related Web sites in September.
There were no new members among Hitwise’s list of top 10 real estate Web sites, with Realtor.com (6.86 percent market share), Yahoo! Real Estate (4.66 percent), Zillow (3.05 percent) and ZipRealty (2.59 percent) holding on to the top spots on the list.
With a 2.45 percent share of traffic in the category, ServiceMagic, which ranked 11th in June and seventh last month, moved up two places, bumping Rent.com (2.4 percent market share) into sixth place and Trulia.com (2.26 percent) into seventh.
Homes.com (1.68 percent), MSN Real Estate (1.64 percent) and RE/MAX Real Estate (1.42 percent) held onto positions eight through 10 on the Hitwise top 10.
The top 10 sites accounted for 29 percent of all visits in the real estate category, while 40 percent of traffic was captured by the top 20 sites, Hitwise said.
Moving up on the Hitwise list of the top 20 most visited sites in the real estate category were Apartment Guide (up four positions to 13th), MyNewPlace (up one position to 14th), AOL Real Estate (up one position to 15th) and ForRent.com (up one position to 18th).
In June, Apartment Guide was ranked 22nd, ForRent.com was 25th, and AOL Real Estate was 42nd.
Listingbook Services and Redfin returned to the Hitwise Top 20 in September, taking the 19th and 20th positions. Both sites were on the Top 20 list in June; Redfin slipped to 21st in July and August, while Listingbook Services fell to 25th in August. …CONTINUED
The two sites bumped from the Hitwise Top 20 in September were RealtyTrac and mlsfinder.com. According to previous Hitwise reports, RealtyTrac was the second-most popular real estate Web site for much of 2007, and was ranked in the top 10 as recently as November.
Other sites losing ground on the Hitwise Top 20 in September included HomeGain, which fell three positions to 16th, and Century 21 Real Estate, down three places to 17th.
Previous Hitwise reports showed HomeGain starting off the year as the sixth-most popular real estate Web site, and ranking in the Top 10 until July, when the site slipped to 12th place.
Holding their ground on the Hitwise Top 20 in September were Apartments.com (11th) and HUD.gov (12th).
Nine sites entered the Hitwise Top 100 in September: Stop Snap (63rd), Candy Hallstead (66th), RealestatemarketMinute.com (68th), Todd Lands Ann Arbor Real Estate (70), Affordable Housing Online (83), HotPads.com (85th), Landwatch.com (92nd), JustListed.com (96th), and LandAndFarm.com (98th).
Leaving the Top 100 were Williams & Williams Auctioneers (102nd), Cyberhomes (103rd), Bluegreen (105th), ERA.com (107th), HomesDataBase.com (110th), HouseValues.com (112th), tenmanagement.com (117th), First Multiple Listing Service (126th), and Northern New England Real Estate Network (130th).
Fast-moving sites identified by Hitwise as showing substantial increases in rank were mlspin.com (up 233 places to 382nd), VIP Vacation Rentals (up 485 places to 944th), Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties (up 278 places to 564th), Apartamentos Para Rentar (up 172 places to 356th), newlandcommunities.com (up 579 places to 1,307th) ERA Webb Associates (up 717 places to 1,505th), Prodigyre (up 241 places to 620th), Number 1 Expert (up 160 places to 457th), and MLXchange Northwest Arkansas (up 159 places to 483rd).
Hitwise reported that the most popular search terms in the real estate category included "Realtor.com," "zillow," "apartments for rent," "real estate," "century 21," "homes for sale," "remax," "zillow.com," "houses for rent," and "coldwell banker."
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