zillow.com Reports 2009 Records

US real estate marketplace zillow.com has started 2010 with a bang, reporting a 57 percent increase in the number of unique visitors to the website year-on-year.

zillow.com recently claimed to be bigger than realtor.com based on comScore figures, but later retracted that statement after comScore pointed out flaws in the comparison methods used.

This time, zillow.com is quoting Omniture data to put its average number of unique users at 8.2 million per month and its page view numbers up 37 percent since 2008.

zillow.com also states there are now 3.9 million for sale, rental, and Make Me Move listings on the website, which is a 43 percent year-on-year increase. Rental listings were introduced in mid-December.

zillow.com’s biggest success in 2009 was arguably its popular iPhone application, which it now says has been downloaded over 870,000 times. zillow.com says over 2 million homes are viewed via the application each month.

According to zillow.com, consumers submitted 550,000 loan requests on its Mortgage Marketplace, which has just been highlighted in a distribution deal with online brokerage redfin.com. Finally, zillow.com says 2009 saw 171 US newspapers start using its search and listings technology to power their real estate websites.

“2009 was a wild year for real estate, with continued home value declines, government intervention, record low mortgage rates, and an enormous amount of consumer uncertainty about what the future holds,” said Spencer Rascoff, zillow.com’s chief operating officer. “As a result, people flocked to zillow.com for information and advice. Uncertainty always benefits information providers, and 2009 was the year that zillow.com solidified its place as a clear leader in providing millions of people with real estate information.”

zillow.com’s statement stops short of detailing any financial repercussions of its 2009 records, but says it has raised US$87 million in funding.

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