Inman

Move.com back on Hitwise top 20 list

Real estate search engine Move.com joined its fellow Move Inc.-operated site Realtor.com in a list of the top 20 most-visited real estate sites on the Web in June, according to a report by Web metrics firm Experian Hitwise. The firm bases its reports on a sample of 10 million U.S. Internet users.

Move.com slipped into the No. 20 spot last month, up from its No. 26 ranking in May. The site bumped ApartmentFinder.com off the top 20 list it had just joined in May. Move.com includes exclusive listing content from sister site Realtor.com as well as new-home and rental listings and informational resources for house hunters.

Most sites in the top 10 retained their rankings. Only RE/MAX Real Estate lost its top 10 ranking; rentals site MyNewPlace claimed the No. 10 spot, pushing Remax.com to 11th place.

Realtor.com was No. 1 on the list, with 5.73 market share in June, compared to 6.15 percent in May. At No. 2, Yahoo Real Estate gained some market share last month: 4.55 percent vs. 4.31 percent.

Property valuation site Zillow ranked third, with 3.75 percent of visits in June vs. 4.11 percent the month before.

Market share among the remaining sites in the top 10 — Rent.com (No. 4), Trulia.com (No. 5), ZipRealty (No. 6), MSN Real Estate (No. 7), Homes.com (No. 8), and Apartment Guide (No. 9) — remained largely the same.

Rentals.com (No. 12), ForRent.com (No. 13), Apartments.com (No.14), and Century 21 Real Estate (No.15) retained their month-to-month rankings.

ConnectWithLife, a search site for real estate, autos, loans, insurance, and home improvement professionals, moved up one spot to No. 16, bumping Redfin down to No. 17.

Both the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) site and vacation rental site HomeAway gained popularity in June. Each jumped three spots to No. 18. and No. 19, respectively.

The top 10 websites made up 28.8 percent of all visits in the Hitwise "Business and Finance — Real Estate" category. The top 20 sites accounted for 39.6 percent of the traffic, while the top 100 sites captured 69.4 percent of category traffic. The average visit to the category lasted 9 minutes, 30 seconds, a six-second decrease from May.

The top 10 most popular real estate search terms in June were, in order, "realtor.com," "zillow," "apartments for rent," "remax," "real estate," "houses for rent," "century 21," "zillow.com," "coldwell banker," and "homes for sale." All except "realtor.com," which accounted for 1.68 percent of search terms leading to a real estate category site, accounted for less than 1 percent of visits.

Move.com made it into the report’s list of fast-moving sites in the four months preceding June, rising six places. Other fast-moving sites in the category included Jacksonville Real Estate (up 926 places to No. 1,622), Blue Water GMAC (up 124 places to No. 291), Wright Property Management (up 332 places to No. 817), HomeListings USA (up 236 places to No. 728), Realtynow.com (up 65 places to No. 221), The Muljat Group (up 172 places to No. 613), Lands of Massachusetts (up 624 places to No. 1,834), Property Sciences (up 652 places to No. 1,913), and First American Home Warranty (up 89 places to No. 355).