Zillow Leads the Web with 262 Million Visits, While Homes.com Gains 86%
February 2023 U.S. real estate home search traffic update also shows Rocket Homes dropped 58%
Similarweb’s latest look at the real estate industry’s leading search sites for buying and selling homes shows an overall 5% year-over-year decrease in visits in the month of February.
Homes.com saw the most growth in web traffic on a year-over-year basis at 86%, with no other site experiencing a substantial gain. Rocket Homes saw a 58% year-over-year web traffic decline, and Century 21 saw a 43% drop in traffic.
Zillow led in the share of traffic among real estate peers for the month of February 2023 (based on a look at seventeen leading peers) with a 44% share of traffic.
Key metrics
- When Zillow, Trulia, and Streeteasy are combined, their market share of traffic reached 52% of the category and represents Zillow Group’s leading position. Overall, the top 10 sites control 98% of traffic share.
- Only three of the seventeen sites tracked saw a year-over-year increase in traffic: Homes.com, RE/MAX, and Compass.
- Zillow, Homes.com, and Redfin were the share gain leaders, while Realtor.com, Trulia, and OneHome lost the most share.
Web traffic growth shows Homes.com performed best, Rocket Homes worst
We analyze traffic to these home search sites as a proxy for potential demand, as most consumers visit these websites before making in-person visits and purchases. The chart below shows the change in web traffic on a year-over-year basis. Homes.com saw major growth, while Rocket Homes performed the worst. Homes.com appears to be benefiting from increased advertising spend, while the sharp increase in mortgage rates is likely negatively impacting traffic to Rocket Homes. Opendoor also saw a 26% decrease as demand has abated for what the company calls “iBuying services.”
Share of traffic finds Zillow leading, peers lagging
The below chart shows the relative market share of each company in the peer group relative to each other (share of traffic). You can see Zillow leads with 44%, followed by Realtor.com at 19%, Redfin at 15%, and Trulia at 13%. Traffic to Compass, Keller Williams, and eXp Realty barely registers amongst peers, while they are industry leaders in transaction units and volume.
Changes in share of traffic show Realtor.com, Trulia performing worst
Shifts in share of traffic year-over-year show that Realtor (-2.9 percentage points) and Trulia (-0.5 percentage points) performed worst, while Zillow (+2.0 percentage points) and Homes.com (+1.6 percentage points) did the best.
Zillow has shown a consistent lead over the past year, while Homes.com recently saw a sharp gain. Realtor.com has been fading over the past twelve months.
The list of the real estate sites in this report and their traffic rankings is below.
| Brand or Co | Domain | Feb 2023 Visits | Visits YoY | Feb 2023 Share | Share YoY pp |
| Zillow | zillow.com | 261,893,485 | -0.8% | 43.5% | 2.0 |
| Realtor.com | realtor.com | 115,678,442 | -17.6% | 19.2% | -2.9 |
| Redfin | redfin.com | 91,539,540 | -1.6% | 15.2% | 0.6 |
| Trulia | trulia.com | 43,621,934 | -11.7% | 7.2% | -0.5 |
| Movoto | movoto.com | 20,979,009 | -7.9% | 3.5% | -0.1 |
| Homes.com | homes.com | 19,825,772 | 86.3% | 3.3% | 1.6 |
| OneHome | onehome.com | 12,499,430 | -19.6% | 2.1% | -0.4 |
| RE/MAX | remax.com | 9,011,132 | 18.2% | 1.5% | 0.3 |
| Compass | compass.com | 7,565,408 | 6.6% | 1.3% | 0.1 |
| Streeteasy | streeteasy.com | 7,360,709 | -3.4% | 1.2% | 0.0 |
| Coldwell Banker | coldwellbanker.com | 2,241,344 | -17.9% | 0.4% | -0.1 |
| Century 21 | century21.com | 2,061,054 | -43.0% | 0.3% | -0.2 |
| Keller Williams | kw.com | 1,967,641 | -19.4% | 0.3% | -0.1 |
| Opendoor | opendoor.com | 1,600,982 | -25.8% | 0.3% | -0.1 |
| eXp Realty | exprealty.com | 1,433,888 | -17.8% | 0.2% | 0.0 |
| Homelight | homelight.com | 1,430,308 | -8.8% | 0.2% | 0.0 |
| Rocket Homes | rockethomes.com | 1,343,526 | -57.5% | 0.2% | -0.3 |
Publicly traded companies that own the websites mentioned in this report include Zillow Group (NASDAQ: Z, ZG), Redfin (NYSE: RDFN), News Corp (NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA), Costar Group (NASDAQ: CSTR), Rocket Companies (NASDAQ: RKT), eXp World Holdings (NYSE: EXPI), Opendoor (NASDAQ: OPEN), Anywhere Real Estate (NASDAQ: HOUS), RE/MAX Holdings (NASDAQ: RMAX), Compass (NYSE: COMP).
The Similarweb Insights & Communications team is available to pull additional or updated data on request for the news media (journalists are invited to write to press@similarweb.com). When citing our data, please reference Similarweb as the source and link back to the most relevant blog post or similarweb.com/blog/insights/.
Disclaimer: All names, brands, trademarks, and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The data, reports, and other materials provided or made available by Similarweb consist of or include estimated metrics and digital insights generated by Similarweb using its proprietary algorithms, based on information collected by Similarweb from multiple sources using its advanced data methodologies. Similarweb shall not be responsible for the accuracy of such data, reports, and materials and shall have no liability for any decision by any third party based in whole or in part on such data, reports, and materials.
by RJ Jones
Vice President of Investor Relations, Communications, Insights, and Sustainability
Vice President of Investor Relations, Communications, Insights, and Sustainability
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