Can Zillow Inc (Z) Keep It Up?

Zillow Inc (NASDAQ:Z)‘s being bid up like pretty home on a prime lot.

Shares of the fast-growing real estate website operator bucked last week’s decline, soaring 11% higher and hitting a new all-time high.

Zillow Inc (NASDAQ:Z) is one of this year’s hottest stocks, up a whopping 248% in 2013. Mortgage applications for new home purchases spiked 14% in July. The latest S&P/Case-Shiller data show that home prices have risen 10% over the past year, and that average bumps up to 12% if we only look at the largest metropolitan cities.

Clearly there is a renewed interest in residential properties, and that’s reflecting in huge gains at Zillow Inc (NASDAQ:Z) and smaller rival Trulia Inc (NYSE:TRLA).

Naturally the concern here is that Zillow Inc (NASDAQ:Z) has gotten ahead of itself.

Despite posting blowout quarterly results early last month, the stock sold off on the news. Zillow Inc (NASDAQ:Z) shares slid later in the month after a secondary offering and announcing a small acquisition. Despite these events, Zillow’s stock still managed to claw all the way back to hit a new high on Thursday.

These are exciting times for the companies that are excelling in serving up information that consumers crave and leads that real estate brokers covet.

Zillow Inc (NASDAQ:Z)’s revenue soared 69% in its latest quarter, and it surprised the market with a small adjusted profit. Trulia Inc (NYSE:TRLA)’s growing even faster — with revenue up 77% in its latest report — but Zillow’s the eyeball magnet with 61 million unique monthly visitors across its site and several mobile apps. Trulia’s drawing an average of 35 million unique users.