The COVID-19 pandemic drove a real estate boom in the United States during 2020 as the top mobile homebuying and rental apps saw record adoption by consumers. Sensor Tower’s latest report, available now, reveals that this trend has continued into the first half of this year.
Top Real Estate and Housing Apps Climbed 14 Percent to 23 Million in H1 2021
U.S. consumer interest in real estate apps remained strong in 1H21, climbing 14 percent year-over-year to more than 23 million installs from 20.3 million in the year-ago period. The top 30 apps of this type experienced a record quarter in Q1 2021, seeing more than 12 million downloads. Although adoption was down quarter-over-quarter in Q2 2021, the cohort still showed strong growth when compared to the same period in 2020, climbing 7 percent Y/Y to nearly 11 million downloads.
Zillow Maintains a Majority Share of U.S. Installs
Among the top real estate and housing apps in the U.S., Zillow has commanded the largest market share of installs for the past three years. The publisher’s top two apps, Zillow Real Estate and Zillow Rentals, collectively saw 7.7 million installs in 1H21. However, competitors are eating into its market share, which has fallen four percentage points from 48 percent in 2019 to 44 percent in the first half of 2021, indicating that other platforms are proving successful in capturing consumer interest.
Real Estate Management App Adoption Soared in 2021
Platforms geared toward homebuyers and renters aren’t the only types of real estate apps that have experienced an uptick in adoption. The top 10 U.S. real estate management apps for property owners saw a boom in downloads starting in December 2020 and continuing to climb in the first half of 2021. Installs of these types of apps in June 2021 were up 80 percent when compared to January 2020.
For more analysis from the Sensor Tower Store Intelligence platform, including key insights on the performance of top real estate and housing apps in the U.S. as well as a deep dive into user demographics, download the complete report in PDF form below: