The 5 Best Housing Apps of 2024

Looking for a new home? Try one of these

By
Jacqueline Emigh
Jacqueline Emigh
Writer
  • Emerson College
  • Brandeis University
Jacqueline Emigh is an award-winning writer whose writing appears in PC World, PC Magazine, and more. She's also held editorial positions at Newsbytes, ZDNet, and others.
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Updated on January 24, 2024

Mobile real estate apps are simplifying the home-buying process. Here are six of the best home search apps for iOS and Android.

01
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Most Versatile House Finding App: Homes.com for Sale, Rent

Homes.com app for Android
What We Like

  • Lists new properties before other apps.

  • Grades nearby schools based on their performance on state tests.

What We Don't Like

  • Some listings are out-of-date.

  • Doesn't cover some rural areas.

Homes.com's mobile app provides searchable listings for millions of homes for sale or rent. Search filters include price, size, year built, and building types, such as a house, condo, bungalow, or townhome.

Interactive maps and high-resolution photos accompany listings. You can share the houses you like with real estate agents, family, and friends via email, text message, and more.

Download For:

02
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Most Visual Real Estate App: Realtor.com Real Estate

Realtor.com app for Android
What We Like

  • Sign Snap fearure lets you send photos of a home for sale and receive details back.

  • Get updates on viewed listings.

What We Don't Like

  • Recommendation filters aren't always on target.

  • Occasional bugs.

Realtor.com is a comprehensive and visually compelling app available on iOS and Android. The Android versions support Google Chromecast for streaming pictures from your device to a TV. On both platforms, listings are accompanied by Google Street Views, with some listings offering 3D tours.

The app is also attentive to your search preferences. Scrolling down the listings page after you've searched, you can find suggested listings with similar features in the same neighborhood. Additionally, based on your search criteria, the app sends alerts about new listings.

Download For:

03
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Best for Getting a Feel for the Area: Trulia Real Estate App

Trulia's app for Android
What We Like

  • Trulia Neighborhoods feature provides virtual neighborhood tours.

  • Responsive tech support team.

What We Don't Like

  • Some listings come with sketches of buildings instead of photos, or with interior shots only.

  • Lags when scrolling through photos.

Like Realtor.com's app, the Trulia app is available on iOS and Android. Regardless of platform, Trulia allows you to search for amenities using keywords like "waterfront."

Additional standout capabilities include customizable email and push notification alerts, school reports by parents, crime statistics for the area, and an open house scheduling tool.

Download For:

04
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Most Filter-Abundant Housing App: Zillow

Zillow app for Android
What We Like

  • Zestimate home values can help decide if a neighborhood is on the rise or declining.

  • Includes data regarding purchase history of the property.

  • Can share with both users and non-users.

What We Don't Like

  • Listings updates lag a few days behind MLS listings.

  • No way to hide listings pending sale.

The Zillow app brings some unusual strengths. Aside from the more conventional features in real estate apps, you can view Zillow's trademarked Zestimate home values for more than 100 million homes nationwide. Zillow also claims to offer many listings unavailable through the MLS, a set of listings from realtors that many apps rely on as a database.

Filters in Zillow are abundant for a mobile app, allowing you to search for manufactured homes and lots/land, for example, and by drive time and types of nearby schools. Satellite maps and video tours are available as well.

Download For:

05
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Best Maps in a Housing App: Real Estate by Xome

Xome app for Android
What We Like

  • Walk Score and Bike Score can help you to quickly determine how well the community will work for your household.

  • Lots of pictures.

What We Don't Like

  • Doesn't include a typical list view. To access specific listings, you must tap property icons on the map.

  • Limited soft filters.

Xome is an all-in-one app for finding real estate listings and contacting agents. You can search by location or specific address or draw a custom region on the map.

Map overlays make highlighting neighborhoods, subdivisions, school districts, and nearby points of interest simple. A slick built-in mortgage calculator gives you total mortgage figures and piecharts showing breakouts for principal and interest payments, taxes, and insurance.

Download For:

Web-Based Virtual Assistants as Alternatives

While it only takes a few minutes to download and install apps, you can also use a virtual personal assistant like Google Assistant, Apple Siri, or Microsoft Cortana.

Your experience with these voice-enabled, browser-based search engines probably won't be a match for what you'll get from a mobile app, but here are a few things to know before you choose to use them:

  • By speaking search terms like "houses near me by owners" into Google Assistant, Siri, or Cortana, you will receive some search results, yet most of the links will bring you to either real estate agencies or house-finding websites. Sometimes, those websites load decently on mobile devices, but most sites are designed for PC screens, not phones or small tablets.
  • You won't receive the cool bells and whistles from housing apps.
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