Yahoo Real Estate reclaimed the top spot in May on a list of the most popular real estate websites compiled by Experian Hitwise, bumping the National Association of Realtors’ official listing portal, Realtor.com, into second place.
Hitwise showed the two sites with virtually identical market share — Yahoo Real Estate captured 6.51 percent of traffic in the category, compared with 6.46 percent for Realtor.com — and with comfortable cushions over third-place Zillow (5.69 percent) and fourth-place Trulia.com (4.77 percent).
Also climbing the ranks of the Hitwise top 10 were fifth-place MSN Real Estate (2.42 percent market share), which was up three positions from April, and HGTV’s FrontDoor Real Estate (2.38 percent), up four places to sixth.
Those sites’ gains came at the expense of seventh-place Rent.com (2.35 percent) and eighth-place Homes.com (2.2 percent), both down one position from April, and ninth-place AOL Real Estate (2.13 percent), which fell four positions.
With a 1.44 percent market share, ZipRealty’s popular real estate listings portal — which offers in-depth information on listings to registered users through a "virtual office website," or VOW — slipped two positions to 11th, allowing Apartment Guide (1.61 percent) to climb one position, into the 10th spot in the Hitwise rankings.
All told, sites in the Hitwise top 10 captured 36.5 percent of all visits in the real estate category, compared with 10.65 percent for the next 10 most popular portals.
Following ZipRealty on the Hitwise top 20 list were Apartments.com (1.16 percent), which climbed four positions to 12th; Rentals.com (1.16 percent), unchanged at 13th; RE/MAX Real Estate (1.06 percent), unchanged at 14th; Weichert.com (1.06 percent), unchanged at 15th; MyNewPlace (1.05 percent), which fell four places to 16th; ForRent.com (0.96 percent), unchanged at 17th; HomeAway (0.93 percent), up two positions to 18th; ApartmentFinder.com (0.93 percent), which rose 12 positions to 19th; and LoopNet (0.89 percent), down two positions to 20th.
While ApartmentFinder.com was the only newcomer to the Hitwise top 20, five sites entered the top 100: findapartmentshere.com (91st), UtahRealEstate.com (94th), LakeHouse.com (95th), MetroList MLS Prospector (98th), and Prudential Real Estate (100th).
Other fast moving sites were RentalProperties411.com, up 326 places to 281st; PropertyTaxRelief.com, up 595 places to 564th; c.homestore.com (which redirects to Realtor.com — that site’s operator, Move Inc., was previously branded as Homestore), up 231 places to 245th; rentshout.com, up 476 places to 558th; SKB Sotheby’s International Realty, up 589 places to 842nd; Rainbow Realty, up 1,037 places to 1,901st; State Wide Real Estate, up 366 places to 903rd; Coldwell Banker Shook, up 568 places to 1,427th; RentWiki, up 208 places to 620th; and American Tenant Screening Inc., up 445 places to 1,284th.
The top 10 search terms were: "realtor.com," "zillow," "trulia," "realtor," "zillow.com," "remax," "century 21," "coldwell banker," "homes for sale," and "homes for rent."