Apartments.com Offers Renters AI-Powered Search Options

Apartments.com owner CoStar Group is introducing a new artificial intelligence-powered search tool.

Apartments.com Ai trades standard filters and keyword searches with real-time conversations designed to make customers feel like they’re working with a rental adviser, according to a Tuesday (June 16) press release.

“Finding an apartment is one of the most important decisions people make, yet the search process has remained largely unchanged for years,” CoStar Founder and CEO Andy Florance said in the release. “…By combining artificial intelligence with the most comprehensive multifamily data in the industry, we can understand what renters are truly looking for, guide them through their options, and help them find a home that fits their lifestyle with far greater speed, confidence and precision.”

The AI tool is designed to understand renter preferences, answer complex questions, compare communities, surface relevant recommendations and guide renters through each stage of their search, according to the release.

Renters can describe features important to them, like “a pet-friendly community under $2,000 a month with easy subway access,” and get “highly personalized recommendations tailored to their lifestyle and priorities,” the release said.

Also this month, Realtor.com launched RealAssist AI, a conversational assistant built on Google’s Gemini that allows buyers to describe what they want in plain language and get back listings. It pulls in MLS data, affordability calculations and agent connections minus the traditional filter interface.

“The timing is deliberate and complicated,” PYMNTS reported June 2. “The 2026 housing market remains sluggish, with near-record costs and scarce inventory. Buyers, per the 2026 ServiceLink State of Homebuying Report, are entering the process stressed and underprepared.”

Realtor.com is touting RealAssist as the connective tissue between the fragmented steps that aren’t in conversation with each other, such as listing searches, mortgage math, neighborhood research and agent calls.

Although RealAssist is a search interface, buyers arriving at any AI-powered real estate experience these days are coming with reasons to be skeptical.

PYMNTS Intelligence found that 70% of consumers are open to AI agents for shopping. However, a survey of prospective buyers by data analytics firm Cotality found that trust in AI to help find a home fell to 16%, down from 30% a year earlier, even as AI tools became more widely used.

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