There was much jockeying for position but only one new entry, HomeFinder.com, for July on a list of top 20 real estate websites maintained by Web metrics firm Experian Hitwise.
HomeFinder.com, a real estate search site and provider of marketing solutions to about 20,000 real estate agents, climbed back into 20th position on the Hitwise list of top real estate sites, a position it last held in April, bumping HotPads.com from the top 20 in the process.
Other sites climbing up the Hitwise list in July were AOL Real Estate (up one position from June, to seventh); Apartments.com (up three positions, to 10th); Rentals.com (up two positions, to 16th); and Redfin.com (up one position, to 18th).
Losing ground on the Hitwise top 20 were ApartmentGuide.com (down one position, to eighth); MyNewPlace (down one position, to 11th); ZipRealty (down two positions, to 13th); ForRent.com (down one position, to 17th); and HAR.com (down two positions, to 19th).
Redfin and ZipRealty — the only websites operated by brokerages on the Hitwise top 20 — have both lost considerable ground since April, when ZipRealty.com was ranked 10th on the Hitwise list of most visited real estate sites, and Redfin was 11th.
According to Hitwise statistics, which don’t capture mobile app usage, the top 10 websites on the list captured 39.93 percent of all visits in the real estate category.
Zillow topped the list with 8.55 percent market share in June, followed by Trulia (7.06 percent), Realtor.com (6.59 percent), and Yahoo Real Estate (6.14 percent). Rounding out the top 10 were Homes.com with 3.33 percent market share, MSN Real Estate (2.25 percent), AOL Real Estate (1.84 percent), Apartment Guide (1.58 percent), Rent.com (1.37 percent) and Apartments.com (1.21 percent).
Zillow powers for-sale listings on Yahoo Real Estate and sells targeted ads to real estate agents and brokers that appear on both sites. Hitwise shows Zillow and Yahoo Real Estate with a combined 14.69 percent market share.
MSN Real Estate serves up framed Realtor.com search results. According to Hitwise, Realtor.com and MSN Real Estate had a combined 8.84 percent market share of traffic in the real estate category in July (Realtor.com operator Move Inc. also supplies a separate set of listings to AOL Real Estate through a subsidiary, ListHub).
That compares with a 9.98 percent combined market share for the next 10 most popular sites on the Hitwise list: MyNewPlace (1.21 percent), HomeAway (1.1 percent), ZipRealty (1.09 percent), LoopNet (1.01 percent), Re/Max Real Estate (1.01 percent), Rentals.com (1.01 percent), ForRent.com (0.96 percent), Redfin (0.89 percent), HAR.com (0.88 percent) and HomeFinder (0.82 percent).
Six websites entered the top 100 last month, Renttoown.org (43rd), Prudential Real Estate (76th), Leachman Home Loans (93rd), homes.trovit.com (96th), Senior HousingNet (99th) and RoomMates.com (100th).
The six websites leaving the top 100 in July were realestate.msn.realtor.com (165th), MLSLI.com (111th), Property Shark (102nd), MLS (101st), Utah Real Estate (132nd) and Edina Realty (109th).
Top-ranked search terms were "zillow," "realtor.com," "trulia," "realtor," "zillow.com," "century 21," "remax," "homes.com," "coldwell banker," "real estate," "har.com," "har," "homes for sale," "apartment finder," "houses for rent," "rent.com," "re max," "apartments for rent," "howard hanna," and "zillow real estate zillow."
Fast-moving sites in July included Renttoown.org (up 196 places to 43), Honua Kai (up 571 places to 773), The RiskMeter (up 296 places to 433), www.bank-foreclosure-homes.com (up 502 places to 836), Ocracoke Island Realty Inc. (up 268 places to 512), Great Georgia Properties (up 285 places to 539), Angelo, Gordon & Co. (up 186 places to 385), Southern Land Exchange (up 791 places to 1,447), SiteNet (up 634 places to 1,276) and Real Estate – NWF Daily News (up 788 places to 1,785).
