In Q4 2025, 61.9% of home views on Realtor.com for the 100 largest U.S. metro areas came from buyers outside local markets, marking a substantial rise from the 48.6% share recorded in Q4 2019 and slightly below the 64.7% peak in Q4 2024. Today, 87 of these metros see majority non-local interest, highlighting growing mobility and cross-market engagement on the platform.

Affordable Sun Belt metros, including Cape Coral-Fort Myers (82.5%), Lakeland-Winter Haven (79.8%), and Durham-Chapel Hill (78.2%), lead out-of-market traffic driven by retirees and investors seeking value. Tech hubs such as San Francisco (58.7%, +25.4% since 2019), Philadelphia (53.0%, +25%), and Detroit (52.4%, +23.2%) record significant gains fueled by AI job growth and data center investments.

This structural shift toward cross-market house hunting enhances user engagement on Realtor.com, potentially boosting ad inventory and revenue for News Corp’s digital real estate segment. Sustained growth in non-local traffic could strengthen the platform’s monetization prospects and support future content and technology investments.