Overall, more unique visitors came to real estate sites from desktop computers than from mobile devices in August, but mobile was king among the top sites, according to comScore data.
Of the six most popular networks in August, just Homes.com (No. 4) had more desktop visitors than mobile visitors. Mobile ruled on the other leaders’ sites: Zillow (No. 1), Trulia (No. 2), realtor.com operator Move Inc. (No. 3), Redfin (No. 5) and Apartments.com (No. 6). (See below for how traffic broke down for other sites in the top 15.)
Top 6 real estate networks by Web traffic*, August 2014
| Real estate network | Total unique visitors in August | Desktop unique visitors | Mobile unique visitors |
| All real estate sites | 103.4 million | 67.6 million | 60.0 million |
| Zillow (Yahoo) network | 57.6 million | 31.5 million | 34.0 million |
| Trulia (RentPath) network | 34.7 million | 16.9 million | 21.2 million |
| Move Inc. (realtor.com) network | 25.8 million | 13.5 million | 14.7 million |
| Homes.com (ForRent.com) network | 11.9 million | 6.3 million | 6.1 million |
| Redfin | 6.9 million | 3.3 million | 3.9 million |
| Apartments.com sites | 6.6 million | 2.8 million | 4.1 million |
Source: comScore *Includes traffic from desktop computers and mobile devices (mobile Web and native apps)
Zillow, Trulia and realtor.com each featured their mobile apps heavily in their national marketing campaigns this year, and it looks like it has paid off, at least as far as traffic is concerned.
Sixty-second version of Zillow’s 2014 national TV spot, “Family Search.”
Top 15 real estate networks by Web traffic*, August 2014
| Real estate network | Total unique visitors in August | Desktop unique visitors | Mobile unique visitors |
| All real estate sites | 103.4 million | 67.6 million | 60.0 million |
| Zillow (Yahoo) network | 57.6 million | 31.5 million | 34.0 million |
| Trulia (RentPath) network | 34.7 million | 16.9 million | 21.2 million |
| Move Inc. network | 25.8 million | 13.5 million | 14.7 million |
| Homes.com (ForRent.com) network | 11.9 million | 6.3 million | 6.1 million |
| Redfin | 6.9 million | 3.3 million | 3.9 million |
| Apartments.com sites | 6.6 million | 2.8 million | 4.1 million |
| Movoto | 5.3 million | 2.9 million | 2.5 million |
| MSN Real Estate | 5.0 million | 4.2 million | 0.9 million |
| Coldwell Banker Real Estate | 4.4 million | 3.1 million | 1.5 million |
| LoopNet sites | 3.5 million | 2.6 million | 1.0 million |
| Century 21 Real Estate | 3.1 million | 1.7 million | 1.6 million |
| U-Haul | 2.4 million | 1.6 million | 0.8 million |
| NCI Interactive | 2.1 million | 1.0 million | 1.0 million |
| Re/Max | 1.8 million | 1.2 million | 0.6 million |
| Apartment List | 1.8 million | 1.0 million | 0.8 million |
Source: comScore *Includes traffic from desktop computers and mobile devices (mobile Web and native apps)
A shift coming?
Zillow is king of Web traffic now, but that might change after the dust settles if and when Zillow’s proposed acquisition of Trulia and News Corp’s proposed acquisition of Move Inc. go through.
Of the 103.4 million people who checked out a real estate site in August, just under half (47.7 percent) went to zillow.com, according to comScore data.
A little more than a quarter, 29.2 percent, went to trulia.com, with 23.4 percent visiting realtor.com.
Unique visitor traffic* to most popular real estate sites, August 2014
| Website | August mobile and desktop unique visitors | % of total unique visitors to real estate sites in August | Percentage point difference July – August |
| zillow.com | 49.3 million | 47.7% | 0.9% |
| trulia.com | 30.2 million | 29.2% | -0.9% |
| realtor.com | 24.1 million | 23.4% | 0.3% |
Source: comScore *Includes traffic from desktop computers and mobile devices (mobile Web and native apps)