The Nations Top Visited Real Estate Websites
Boston Condos for Sale and Apartments for Rent
The Nations Top Visited Real Estate Websites
In the today’s high tech world, condominiums and single-family homes for sale are found online. Nearly every home in the country is sold as a result of online home search traffic, website like Zillow, or searching their local online MLS system. I’ve been tracking these trends year by year since 1998.
It is very important for me to know which websites are gaining market share, and which are loosing. I need to know which websites have the greatest impact in a client’s home sale, and which aren’t likely to move the needle. Thankfully, our local MLS systems broadcast out where we need to be, which is a good start, but it doesn’t tell me which sites are worth paying special attention to, and potentially spending more money with, in order to boost our clients’ homes presence online, to help them sell their Boston condo for sale faster and for more money..
Top 5 Real Estate Websites in 2023
| Monthly Visitors | Average Visit Duration | Change in visitor count from 2022 Report | |
| 1. Zillow.com | 300.5 Million | 6:27 Minutes | + 45 Million |
| 2. Realtor.com | 124.2 Million | 5:48 | – 12 Million |
| 3. Redfin.com | 100.8 Million | 4:37 | + 21 Million |
| 4. Trulia.com | 48.87 Million | 4:48 | + 0 |
| 5. Movoto.com | 23.02 Million | 3:55 | – 1 Million |
The top 5 list has stayed the same since 2020 when Homes.com dropped out (I believe mostly to coding issues) and Movoto.com moved into its place. Redfin.com has been slowly crawling up the top 5 list and is now encroaching on Realtor.com’s number two spot. Despite Redfin’s growth and Realtor.com’s significant user base, Zillow still outranks their combined traffic, and the combined traffic of the rest of the top four put together. (Zillow also owns Trulia.com and since purchasing the website has stopped its growth.)
Top 10 List of Real Estate Websites (cont.)
| Monthly Visitors | Average Visit Duration | Change in visitor count from 2022 Report | |
| 6. Homes.com | 22.12 Million | 4:52 Minutes | + 12 Million (rose 1 spot) |
| 7. Remax.com | 9.7 Million | 3:28 | + 3 Million (rose 1 spot) |
| 8. ColdwellBankerHomes.com | 8.4 Million | 2:13 | – 1 Million (fell 2 spots) |
| 9. Compass.com | 8.3 Million | 3:31 | + 3 Million |
| 10. Propertyshark.com | 4.7 Million | 3:18 | + 1 Million (rose 2 spots) |
From the 2022 real estate website traffic report, the biggest loser is ColdwellBankerHomes.com, falling from its number six spot. Homes.com is the biggest gainer by far, nearly doubling its traffic from last year’s report. This is because Homes.com was purchased by CoStar.com (a near monopoly owner on all commercial real estate websites). The Homes.com purchase represents CoStar’s attempt to enter the residential market. So far, the acquisition is working. I expect by 2024 Homes.com will return to its previous spot in the top 5 real estate websites, and who knows how far up CoStar can take the website from there. Homes.com is one to watch.
Now, you’re probably wondering about this Boston condo website. Well, our viewership isn’t in the millions like the above national real estate website, but our average visit duration is 4.36 minutes which places us close to Redfin.com
Beyond the Top 10 Real Estate Websites
| Monthly Visitors | Average Visit Duration | Change in visitor count from 2022 Report | |
| 11. Homesnap.com | 3.9 Million | 3:21 Minutes | |
| 12. Sothebysrealty.com | 2.9 | 4:56 | (rose 4 spots) |
| 13. Kw.com | 2.6 | 6:30 | |
| 14. Century21.com | 2.3 | 3:51 | (fell 4 spots) |
| 15. Exprealty.com | 1.9 | 4:39 | (rose 2 spots) |
| 16. Estately.com | 1.7 | 1:28 | (fell 3 spots) |
| 17. Rockethomes.com | 1.4 | 2:26 | (fell 3 spots) |
| 18. ForSaleByOwner.com | .70 | 1:56 |
Biggest Real Estate Websites Winners and Losers
The Keller Williams search site, KW.com fell from top rankings in 2019. In 2018 KW.com was a top ten visited real estate website. Despite Keller Williams supposed commitment to technology, their primary home search portal has dismal traffic, especially considering the size and wealth of the company behind it. Century21.com also used to be a top ten real estate website and has similarly fallen over the last five years or so. Estately.com used to be a significant public home search portal and has lost perhaps 80% of its traffic since 2018. Homesnap.com was one of the fastest rising websites in the last few years, but recently has plateaued and isn’t showing any recent growth. The website gained most of its traffic by partnering with local MLS systems, some of which have since stopped using its services. It is hard to say where Homesnap.com will go from here.
