For the sixth month in a row, Yahoo Real Estate was the most popular real estate-related website in December, according to the latest rankings from Web metrics firm Experian Hitwise.
Zillow once again took the No. 2 spot on the list, after dropping to third place in November, and Realtor.com dipped to the No. 3 spot. Yahoo Real Estate gained considerable ground in December, capturing 8.27 percent of visits to the real estate category, compared to 7.02 percent the month before.
Zillow also increased its market share, to 6.89 percent, while Realtor.com lost ground at 6.41 percent of visits.
Under the terms of an advertising alliance that went live last February, Zillow powers for-sale listings on Yahoo Real Estate and sells targeted ads to real estate agents and brokers that appear on both sites. Together, Yahoo Real Estate and Zillow’s market share was 15.16 percent in December, up from 14.52 percent in October and 10.79 percent last January.
Trulia stayed in fourth place in December with 5.33 percent of visits, followed by AOL Real Estate and Homes.com, each of which rose one spot with 2.76 percent and 2.72 percent market share, respectively. MSN Real Estate dropped two spots to No. 7, with 2.5 percent market share last month.
Rent.com (1.46 percent), MyNew Place (1.37 percent), and ZipRealty (1.27 percent) rounded out the top 10 last month, with the former retaining its No. 8 ranking and the latter two switching places in the No. 9 and No. 10 spots.
Hitwise reported that sites on its top 10 list captured 39 percent of traffic among all real estate category websites in December.
That compares with the 9.33 percent combined market share of the next 10 most popular sites: Apartment Guide (1.22 percent), LoopNet (1.19 percent), Re/Max Real Estate (0.99 percent), Apartments.com (0.97 percent), Rentals.com (0.87 percent), Weichert.com (0.86 percent), Redfin (0.85 percent), HomeFinder (0.82 percent), ForRent.com (0.8 percent), and Listingbook Services (0.76 percent).
On average, users spent 8 minutes, 54 seconds in visiting a real estate-related website in December, one second more than the month before.
Eight websites entered the top 100 last month: House Radar (47th), AgentAchieve (79th), echeapapartments.com (83rd), UltraForeclosures (89th), renttoowncentral.com (90th), RealtyNow.com (97th), Condo.com (99th), and Sublet.com (100th).
The eight sites leaving the top 100 list in December: RatePlug (115th). homes.point2.com (102nd), About Home Buying/Selling (101st), WhereForeclosures (109th), Monmouth County Association of Realtors (120th), National Association of Realtors (119th), Utah Real Estate (118th), and Property Shark (111th).
For the third month in a row, "zillow" was the top search term in December, with "realtor.com" at No. 2. Among the top 10 real estate search terms tracked by Hitwise in December, they were the only two search terms to account for more than 1 percent of search clicks (at 1.62 percent and 1.47 percent, respectively). Every other search term accounted for less than 1 percent of clicks.
The other popular search terms in the real estate category were, in order, "trulia," "realtor," "zillow.com," "remax," "homes for sale," "century 21," "real estate," and "har.com."
Fast-moving sites last month included Brown Harris Stevens (up 422 places to 164), MSN House & Home (up 1,912 places to 975), image1.apartmentguide.com (up 1,448 places to 1,161), www.crye-leike.com (up 32 places to 44), UltraForeclosures (up 51 places to 89), renttoowncentral.com (up 45 places to 90), c.homestore.com (up 263 places to 561), GAMLS (up 26 places to 59), Prudential Carruthers Realtors (up 700 places to 1,446), and El Paso Times Real Estate (up 764 places to 1,660).
