loopnet.com Replaces redfin.com: Hitwise

The top seven entries in the Hitwise list of US real estate websites remained unchanged during October, but there was movement within the top 20, with apartments.com up one position to take out tenth place, and redfin.com losing its spot at number 20 to commercial portal loopnet.com.
Read more

apartments.com Acquires apartmenthomeliving.com

US specialist apartment portal, apartments.com, has acquired social media apartments website apartmenthomeliving.com.
Read more

realtor.com Increases Market Lead

Of the 3,122 real estate websites Hitwise tracked in December, sampling 10 million US Internet users, realtor.com ended last year at number one in terms of US market share.

Overall, the top 5 places were held by the same websites in the same order as November, but there has been some movement. realtor.com increased its lead slightly from 6.43 percent in November to 6.7 percent market share in December, while Yahoo! Real Estate dropped slightly. trulia.com entered the the top ten at number ten and bumped realtytrac.com out.

The Hitwise top 10 for December 2008 was made up of:

1. realtor.com
2. realestate.yahoo.com
3. zillow.com
4. ziprealty.com
5. rent.com
6. servicemagic.com
7. remax.com
8. hud.gov
9. homegain.com
10. trulia.com

Further down the list there were three new entrants to the top 20: reply.com rose to number 17; move.com rose to number 19; and whitefence.com just made it into the top 20 at number 20.

enormo.com, which had entered the top 100 list in November, no longer made the cut, leaving the top 100 along with cyberhomes.com.

interestingly, The National Association of Realtors’ realtor.org was one of the fastest movers over a 4 month period, rising 25 places. Other fast movers to watch in the real estate category include: vacationsonly.com, homesandestatesonline.com, natefind.com, c21birchwood.com, stribling.com, halogenguides.com, KCCLLC.net, carletonsheets.com and apartmenthomeliving.com.