Rental Search Patterns Offer a Window Into Where Relocation Demand May Be Heading

Prospective renters are looking beyond their own backyards, and new Zillow® data reveals where they're setting their sights. An analysis of rental listing page views found that out-of-town interest is growing fastest in Buffalo, Chicago and Houston. The share of searches coming from renters outside these markets has surged over the past year — an early signal of where relocation demand may be heading next.

Rental search patterns are an early signal of migration trends — when outside search share grows in a market, it often points to a developing pipeline of incoming renters. The year-over-year surge in out-of-town browsing in markets like Buffalo and Chicago may suggest a wave of newcomers is not far behind.

Outside vs. local: Where rental interest is shifting year over year

Buffalo saw the steepest climb in outside interest over the past year, with its out-of-town rental share growing 4.2 percentage points. Chicago (up 3.7 percentage points), Houston (+3.4), New Orleans (+3.2) and Dallas (+3) saw the next biggest gains.

Meanwhile, Cincinnati led local share growth, up 8.1 percentage points year over year, followed by Jacksonville (+4.6) and Columbus (+3.2), a likely sign that homegrown demand is driving these rental markets.

The markets drawing the most out-of-town rental searches

The markets drawing the most out-of-town rental interest are concentrated in the Sun Belt and Mid-Atlantic. These markets have absorbed years of relocation demand from higher-cost coastal metros.

Raleigh tops the list with 59% of page views on rental listings coming from outside the metro area. Hartford (55.1%), New Orleans (53.7%), Salt Lake City (51.9%) and Nashville (51.7%) round out the top five. Providence, named Zillow’s hottest rental market of 2026, is next with 51.5% of rental page views coming from out-of-towners.

At the other end of the spectrum, New York (76.3% of page views on rental listings coming from locals), Los Angeles (72.9%) and Chicago (69.1%) are the most locally driven markets. 

As the three biggest markets in the U.S., their population sizes are a primary reason the most local rental traffic is seen in these areas — there are simply more potential rental shoppers. Metros that outperform their population include St. Louis, which ranks No. 4 among major markets with 67.2% of rental page views coming from within the metro; Kansas City, which ranks No. 10 at 63.3%; and Las Vegas, which ranks No. 13 at 62.1%. 

Top cross-metro shopping flows

Most cross-market rental searches happen between neighboring metros. Washington, D.C. rental searchers account for 23.9% of all rental page views on Baltimore listings. Similar short-distance flows dominate the top of the list, with Los Angeles renters browsing Riverside (21.3%), San Francisco renters browsing San Jose (17.6%) and Boston renters browsing Providence (16.1%).

When looking only at long-distance searches — between markets in different states and at least 100 miles apart — the most common flow is renters in the New York area browsing listings in Hartford, accounting for 6% of all Hartford rental page views on Zillow. Other common flows include Los Angeles renters browsing Las Vegas listings (5.5% of all Las Vegas rental page views), Houston renters browsing Oklahoma City (5.2%) and Boston renters browsing Buffalo (5%).

Among the 20 most common long-distance searches, most occur within neighboring states. The notable exception is New Yorkers looking south. Rental shoppers in the New York metro area make up 2.8% of all page views in Raleigh, about 425 miles and several states away. They also account for large shares of views in Miami (4.8%), Orlando (2.7%) and Tampa (2.4%).