The Real Deal New York

From the March issue: Last month, the most popular applications that could be downloaded to the iPhone from Apple’s iTunes store included a puzzle game named “Blocked,” a joke generator called “Yo Mama” (sample: “Yo mama so stupid she spent 20 minutes lookin’ at an orange juice box because it said ‘concentrate”) and a public radio tuner. There were no real estate-related applications among Apple’s most-downloaded. Still, a search for the keyword “real estate” turned up roughly 20 applications, the majority of which revolve around rental and sales listings. Apple only launched its now popular iPhone applications, or “apps,” last summer, but real estate companies such as StreetEasy and Trulia have already launched programs. Indeed, each company claims that more than 100,000 users have downloaded the free apps it has created. Representatives from both companies say the touch-screen devices have already become valuable extensions of their Web sites.