Online Real Estate Category Searches Increase

RISMEDIA, Feb. 21, 2008-Despite conditions in today’s housing market, unusually large numbers of consumers searched online for real estate last month, with more visiting the Move Network of Websites than any other, according to January 2008 comScore and Hitwise reports. These findings suggest consumer interest in real estate may actually be on the rise.

“Move is pleased to be the number one choice for millions of consumers searching online for real estate,” said Move President, Lorna Borenstein, noting the Move network of websites attracted more than 10 million unique users in January 2008, an 18% increase during the same month last year. “We’re confident that our comprehensive collection of listings, the freshness of our content and our powerful resources are why consumers continue to return to our Websites when searching for real estate.”

According to January 2008 Hitwise reports REALTOR.com continues to be the leading keyword search term(2) and, according to comScore, the Move Network of Websites continues to be number one choice for online real estate searches.

“Move.com actually achieved a 49 percent increase in monthly traffic last month over the same period last year while Realtor.com also achieved a healthy increase,” Borenstein says. “This tells us consumers are more actively searching online for their next home and that Move continues to be their trusted source, delivering the best online experience and resources consumers know they can rely on with confidence. We think the unusual volume this January as compared to last January may be a leading indicator for a strong home buying season this spring.”

In January 2008, comScore reported the Move network captured 10.1 million UUs, meaning the Move network reached 24% of all people visiting the real estate category(1). For the same month, Hitwise reported that Realtor.com retained a 9% market share among the top 30 real estate websites, 272% higher than the market share captured by the next closest competitor(2). Realtor.com was also ranked the number one real estate Website for most visits in Q4 2007, according to Hitwise’s monthly Real Estate Category Report.

comScore is a leader in measuring the digital world and Hitwise is a leading online competitive intelligence service. The table below reports website rankings based on comScore and Hitwise January 2008 findings:

comScore raking for Jan, 2008 Hitwise ranking for Jan. 2008

Rank Site                                                  Rank Site
1 Move Network                                      1 REALTOR.COM(R)
2 Yahoo! Real Estate                               2 Homegain.com
3 Move.com                                              3 Yahoo! Real Estate
4 Rent.com                                               4 RE/MAX Real Estate
5 Apartments.com                                   5 Rent.com
6 MSN Real Estate                                  6 Zillow
7 AOL Real Estate                                   7 Apartments.com
8 Homegain.com                                      8 Move.com
9 HPCInteractive                                    9 Zip Realty
10 Trulia                                                  10 US Dept. of Housing and
                                                                          Urban Dev.

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