Top 10 Visited Real Estate Websites
Updated 10/2024.
In the modern world, home sales are an online affair. Nearly every home in the country is sold thanks to online home search traffic, either by a home buyer on a public website like Zillow or by a real estate agent searching their local online MLS system.
I’ve been tracking these trends year by year since I became licensed in 2003. In our local area, it is now essential to list in multiple MLS systems with every home we sell to reach the broadest number of connected agents. We also pay extra to feature our clients’ homes on top websites so they get more views, more tours, and more and better offers. I need to know which websites are gaining market share and which are losing to know which websites have the most significant impact on a client’s home sale and which aren’t likely to move the needle.
Thankfully, our local MLS systems broadcast where we need to be, which is a good start. Still, it doesn’t tell me which sites are worth paying special attention to and potentially spending more money on to boost our clients’ home presence online and help them sell faster.
This article lays out the top sites today. I also include a special section at the bottom listing sites I trust most for Oregon and Washington.
Top 5 Visited Real Estate Websites
Of the 10 websites we focus on in this article, these top 5 stand out from the crowd regarding traffic. Let’s look at each site’s numbers, seeing where it is this year and how it has changed over time to gauge where they will be moving forward.
| Monthly Visitors | Average Visit Duration | Change in visitor count and position from our 2023 report | |
| 1. Zillow.com | 2024: 365.8 Million 2023: 300.5 Million 2022: 255.5 Million 2021: 264.5 Million 2020: 173 Million | 2024: 5:51 2023: 6:27 2022: 6:20 2021: 6:44 2020: 7:22 | 65.3 Million Increase No position change |
| 2. Realtor.com | 2024: 141.7 Million 2023: 124.2 Million 2022: 136.7 Million 2021: 139.8 Million 2020: 82 Million | 2024: 5:29 2023: 5:48 2022: 5:55 2021:6:11 2020: 6:39 | 17.5 Million Increase No position change |
| 3. Redfin.com | 2024: 107.5 Million 2023: 100.8 Million 2022: 78.6 Million 2021: 74.5 Million 2020: 42 Million | 2024: 4:13 2023: 4:37 2022: 4:49 2021: 5:09 2020: 4:57 | 7 Million Increase No position change |
| 4. Homes.com | 2024: 46.75 Million 2023: 22.12 Million 2022: 9.4 Million 2021: 7.09 Million 2020: 4.8 Million | 2024: 3:25 2023: 4:52 2022: 3:35 2021: 3:39 2020: 4:04 | 24.63 Million Increase (Second largest increase behind Zillow.com) Rose two spots |
| 5. Trulia.com | 2024: 35.28 Million 2023: 48.87 Million 2022: 48.4 Million 2021: 55.9 Million 2020: 51 Million | 2024: 4:16 2023: 4:48 2022: 4:50 2021: 4:59 2020: 5:15 | -13.59 Million Decrease Fell one spot (Largest decrease) |
Data provided by SimilarWeb.
1. Zillow.com: For the last five years, Zillow.com has led the pack. Like last year, it has more than double the traffic of the nearest competitor, Realtor.com. It also averages around 50 to 60 million additional users yearly, an impressive feat. Zillow has seen a drop every year in site duration, which could be due to users using the site in a more utilitarian way, like to quickly check their Zestimate, as opposed to searching for homes.
2. Realtor.com: Like other sites on this list, Realtor.com saw a jump from 2020 to 2021 due to COVID-19 and a surge in home buying. It has fluctuated slightly down and up ever since, remaining relatively flat overall. This year, traffic is just slightly over in 2021. Still, it holds a firm lead over its competitor, Redfin.com. Time will tell if Redfin overtakes them.
3. Redfin.com: Like Realtor.com, the site saw a jump from 2020 to 2021 but has had some continued growth since then. The growth fluctuates yearly, but overall, it shows promise for continued growth.
4. Homes.com: Last year, Movoto.com was in the top 5, but as predicted, Homes.com shot onto the list, putting it even above Trulia.com. It has seen massive gains in the last few years 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, and it is working. Who knows how far up it will go from here? Homes.com will remain the site to watch.
5. Trulia.com: Like other sites, Trulia.com jumped from 2020 to 2021, though less significantly than other sites. It also fell slightly after 2021 and experienced a deep drop this year in 2024. Why? Zillow owns Trulia.com, and since its purchase, the website has stopped growing. It will likely fall even further next year. Zillow seems to have little interest in investing in this website’s success.
Top 10 List of Real Estate Websites (cont.)
Here’s a look at the rest of the remaining websites on this top 10 list. It is interesting to note that they all dropped in traffic, a sign of major real estate website portal consolidation and likely Google’s general preference and bias towards larger companies.
| Monthly Visitors | Average Visit Duration | Change in visitor count and position from our 2023 report | |
| 6. Movoto.com | 11.51 Million | 3:08 | -11.51 Million Decrease Fell one spot |
| 7. Compass.com | 7.617 Million | 3:36 | -0.68 Million Decrease Rose two spots |
| 8. Remax.com | 7.313 Million | 3:09 | -2.39 Million Decrease Fell one spot |
| 9. ColdwellBankerHomes.com | 4.011 Million | 2:46 | -4.39 Million Decrease Fell one spot (Biggest percentage loss) |
| 10. Sothebysrealty.com | 2.717 Million | 3:09 | -0.18 Million Decrease Rose two spots |
Data provided by SimilarWeb.
Here we see that ColdwellBankerHomes.com dropped once again, this time by nearly half, bringing it down one spot and on a likely course of falling off the top 10 list. In addition, nearly every site on this prior list of 5 dropped, some at the same proportion as ColdwellBankerHomes.com. Propertyshark.com and Movoto.com lost at least half of their traffic.
Beyond the Top 10 Real Estate Websites
| Monthly Visitors | Average Visit Duration | Change in visitor count and position from our 2023 report | |
| 11. Kw.com | 2.656 Million | 6:33 | +0.06 Million Rose two spots |
| 12. Century21.com | 1.938 Million | 3:42 | -0.36 Million Rose two spots |
| 13. Propertyshark.com | 1.648 Million | 3:58 | -3.05 Million Fell three spots |
| 14. Rockethomes.com | 1.559 Million | 1:54 | -0.16 Million Fell three spots |
| 15. EXPRealty.com | 1.513 Million | 3:55 | -3.87 Million No change |
| 16. Estately.com | 1.138 Million | 1:39 | -0.562 Million Fell three spots |
| 17. Homesnap.com | 0.88 | 1:08 | -3.02 Million Fell six spots (Biggest position drop) |
| 18. ForSaleByOwner.com | .770 | 2:08 | +0.07 Million No change |
Data provided by SimilarWeb.
Biggest Real Estate Websites Winners
The biggest winner again is Zillow, and it will take a massive shift in growth from other sites to knock it down. However, among the other players, Redfin.com continues to see incremental growth, and Homes.com is still experiencing big increases in traffic each year since being purchased by CoStar.
Biggest Real Estate Website Losers
Propertyshark.com, Exprealty.com, and Homesnap.com experienced massive losses, falling three and six spots, respectively. As for Homesnap.com (also owned by CoStar), CoStar has diverted its attention from the this website and its MLS partnerships to focus its energy on growing Homes.com.
Real Estate Websites to Watch in 2025
CoStar’s decision to buy, fix, and promote Homes.com has obviously paid off. Though the amount of continued growth is still an unknown question, all signs point to continued growth. We also predict that Redfin.com will surpass Realtor.com to reach the number 2 spot eventually, but Zillow.com is likely to remain the king for a long while.
Recommended Real Estate Websites for Oregon and Washington
Most real estate agents do not recommend their clients use Zillow or the other major platforms, and they only recommend them for a short list of reasons. First, the national websites are not as accurate as local sites because the local sites have direct MLS feeds (closer to the source or original data). Real estate agents, by and large, upload new homes for sale directly into a local MLS system. Then, all of these MLS systems (over 300 in the U.S.) feed into the national portals. However, to make a complicated system like that work, the data is often dumbed down from local sources, or mistakes are made in translation. So, using a local site directly connected to a local MLS usually provides the most accurate and detailed information on homes for sale. Here are the sites we recommend if you live in Oregon or Washington:
VancouverWashingtonHouseForSale.com
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