Inman

Apartment sites climb Hitwise list

Two apartment-search sites — ApartmentGuide.com, a part of Primedia family of apartment and rental unit sites; and ForRent.com, owned by Homes.com parent company Dominion Enterprises — joined a top 20 list of most-searched real estate sites in July.

Online metrics company Hitwise reported that MLSFinder.com, which ranked 19th on the June list (see article) based on market share of site visits to real estate category Web sites, and Redfin.com, which ranked 20th in June, were bumped off the July top 20 list.

Realtor.com sustained its place at the top of the list, posting an 8.69 percent market share of all real estate-category visits in July, followed by Yahoo Real Estate (realestate.yahoo.com) with a 4.03 percent share, Zillow.com with a 3.32 percent share and ZipRealty.com with a 2.57 percent share. All of these sites have maintained position for at least the past several months.

Rent.com moved up from sixth place in June to fifth in July, switching places with Trulia.com.

Contractor-search site ServiceMagic.com moved from 11th in June to seventh in July, with Homes.com moving up two spots to eighth in the rankings and REMAX.com dropping from seventh to ninth.

Apartments.com moved up from 13th to 10th; HUD.gov fell from eighth to 11th; Homegain.com dropped from ninth to 12th; MSN Real Estate (realestate.msn.com) improved from 14th to 13th; Century 21 remained 15th in the monthly rankings; RealtyTrac.com dropped from 16th to 17th; ColdwellBanker.com dropped from 12th to 19th; and Listingbook.com dropped from 17th to 20th. …CONTINUED

Nine Web sites that joined the Hitwise top 100 list in July that were not on the list in June include: ApartmentHomeLiving.com, Sublet.com, LakeHouse.com, NACA.com, Realtor.org, Pulte.com, Homes.Point2.com, TenManagement.com and NNEREN.com.

And the Web sites that left the Hitwise top 100 list in July are: WilliamsAuction.com, UtahRealEstate.com, HomeSales.gov, HarmonHomes.com, ForeclosureToGo.com, BrevardMLS.com, Bargain.com, Houses-JustListed.com and ColdwellBankerMoves.com.

Among the most popular search terms leading to real estate-category Web sites during the four-week period ending July 25: "realtor.com," "zillow," "real estate," "apartments for rent," "remax," "century 21," "remax.com homes for sale," "zillow.com," "homes for sale," and "coldwell banker."

Hitwise also listed "fast moving Web sites" that have jumped up in the rankings during a four-month period ending in July.

That list includes RealEstateProfessionals.com, up 1,394 places to 692nd in the rankings; NORMLS.com, up 434 places to 321st; REINMLS.com, up 360 places to 591st; PlatinumInterchange.com, up 359 places to 636th; EliteRenting.com, up 196 places to 295th; FMLS.com, up 160 places to 102nd; NTREIS.com, up 115 places to 145th; NorthMyrtleBeachTravel.com, up 77 places to 155th; ApartmentHomeLiving.com, up 47 places to 72nd; and ApartmentFinder.com, up 31 places to 43rd.

The average visit duration to real estate-category Web sites in July was 10 minutes, 56 seconds, which is down from 12 minutes, 5 seconds in June. About 29.4 percent of all visits to real estate-category sites went to the top 10 sites, with 68.7 percent going to the top 100 sites.

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