Housing search sites ApartmentGuide.com and Homes.com moved up five places on the Hitwise list of most-visited real estate Web sites in June compared to the previous month.

Hitwise, a Web metrics company, also reported that the MSN Real Estate site, at realestate.msn.com, dropped three spots on the real estate top-20 list, which ranks sites according to the market share of visits to that category. The company ranks about 1 million unique Web sites daily.

Realtor.com remained at the top of the list, though its market share declined from 8.12 percent in May to 7.99 percent in June. In April, Hitwise reported that Realtor.com had an 8.42 percent market share. RealtyTrac.com, a real estate information company that provides information about foreclosure properties, was ranked second on the Hitwise top-20 list in June and its market share rose from 3.2 percent in May to 3.85 percent in June.

HomeGain.com dropped from third to fourth on the list while its market share held at 2.88 percent, and Rent.com switched places with HomeGain on the list as its market share grew from 2.86 percent in May to 2.99 percent in June. Home valuation and property information site Zillow.com, which was ranked sixth on the list in May, and Yahoo Real Estate (realestate.yahoo.com), ranked seventh in May, switched places on the list in June.

Every rental-focused Web site on the top-20 list gained in market share from May to June, including Rent.com, Apartments.com, ApartmentGuide.com and ForRent.com. All of these sites except Apartments.com improved in their top-20 ranking.

The most significant moves on the top-20 list in June were by ApartmentGuide.com, which moved from 16th on the list in May to 11th in June, and by Dominion Enterprises site Homes.com, which was ranked 21st in May and 16th in June, Hitwise reported. The MSN Real Estate site fell from 14th on the list in May to 17th in June.

An estimated 29.2 percent of all visits to real estate Web sites in June went to the top-10 Web sites, up from 28.9 percent in May and 28.4 percent in April. About 11.4 percent of traffic in June went to the sites ranked 11th through 20th, and 29 percent of traffic went to sites ranked 21st through 100th.

The average duration of visits to real estate Web sites was 10 minutes and 42 seconds in June, compared with 10 minutes and 38 seconds in May.

Sites that are new to the Hitwise top-100 list of real estate sites in June are LongandFoster.com, which moved from 107th in May to 68th in June; HomeAway.com, up from 108th to 77th; LakeHouse.com, up from 113th to 85th; NewHomeSource.com, up from 101st to 88th; Rentals.com, up from 102nd to 93rd; RealtyUSA.com, up from 105th to 97th; and ResortQuest.com, rising from 127th to 99th.

Sites that left the top-100 list in June but were ranked in May include Eppraisal.com, which fell from 69th to 763rd; PropertyValueHub.com, from 72nd to 797th; HomesLongandFoster.com, which was 85th in May and did not rank in June; HomeRentalAds.com, from 92nd to 106th; MLSPropertyFinder.com, from 98th to 105th; Realtor.org, from 99th to 101st; and Shorewest Realtors, from 100th to 107th, Hitwise reported.

The most popular search terms that resulted in traffic to real estate Web sites for the four weeks ending June 30 included: realtor.com, remax, apartments, real estate, homes for sale, century 21, remax.com, coldwell banker, zillow, zillow.com, for sale by owner, apartments for rent, realtor.com, rent.com, mls, realtor, houses for rent, homes for rent, hud and houses for sale.

The Hitwise report includes information about fast-moving Web sites with substantial gains in traffic ranking over the past four months ending in June. InstantHomeValuations.com topped this list, moving up 404 places in the period. That site was followed by SeacoastDE.com, up 311 places in ranking; SouthernCaliforniaLoans.com, up 275; AMLI.com, up 204; WyndhamWorldwide.com, up 168; 123RentAHome.com, up 130; GloriaNilson.com, up 111 places; VanEatonRomero.com, up 95; RealTourVision.com, up 96; and LBARMLS.com, up 88.

Source: Hitwise. Ranking based on Web site traffic.

Source:

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