Most New-Home Listing Views Come From Outside Their Metro Area
According to the latest Realtor.com New Construction Insights Report, more than two-thirds (67.2%) of views to new-construction listings in the second quarter of 2026 came from shoppers from a different metro area than the home for sale.
Realtor.com noted that the share exceeds the 65.4% of views to existing-home listings coming from outside the listing metro, underscoring the outsized role of long-distance shoppers in new-home demand.
According to the report, the strongest cross-metro interest is concentrated in Southern markets where new construction is often priced at or below the national median.
It said that Lakeland-Winter Haven, Florida, led the nation, with 83.1% of views to new-construction listings originating outside the metro area, followed by Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida (82.4%), Port St. Lucie, Florida. (80.9%), North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, Florida (80.5%), and Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina (80.2%).
“New construction is increasingly a destination for buyers who are willing to look beyond their current metro in search of more attainable options and a different lifestyle,” said Joel Berner, Senior Economist at Realtor.com. “The markets drawing the most distant attention are largely in the South, where buyers can often find a newly built home at a price that compares favorably with more expensive nearby and coastal metros.”
Listing Prices Unchanged
Realtor.com noted that the national median listing price for a newly built home was $450,256 in the second quarter, essentially unchanged from a year earlier, down 0.1%.
By comparison, Realtor.com noted that the median existing-home listing price fell 2% year over year to $408,317. As a result, the national new-construction premium rose to 10.3%, up from 8.2% one year ago.
Meanwhile, Realtor.com said that builders continued to use price reductions more often than existing-home sellers.
For the third straight quarter, a greater share of new-construction listings received a price cut than existing-home listings, 20% versus 18.6%, Realtor.com said. The share of new homes with reductions rose 1.9 percentage points year over year, while the share of existing homes with reductions declined 1.7 percentage points.
“Builders are navigating a more price-sensitive market with an active, hands-on approach to pricing,” Berner said. “New-home listing prices have held broadly steady, but a growing share of builders are adjusting asking prices to meet buyers where they are. That dynamic could narrow the new-construction premium in the quarters ahead.”
Realtor.com noted that new-construction inventory rose 2.8% year over year in the second quarter, closely tracking the 3.1% increase in existing-home inventory. It said that new homes accounted for 17.1% of active listings nationally, nearly unchanged from 17.2% one year earlier.
Out-of-metro shoppers are especially important to new construction across all location types, Realtor.com said.
Most views to rural, town, suburban, and urban new-construction listings came from outside the listing metro. Suburban new-construction listings drew about two-thirds of their views from other metros, while urban new-construction listings drew roughly half of their views from within their own metro area, Realtor.com said.
According to Realtor.com, the median newly built home for sale measured 2,050 square feet in the second quarter, up from 2,045 square feet a year earlier. The small increase in size helped push the median new-home price per square foot down to $217, from $219 a year ago.
Existing homes were listed at $222 per square foot, down from $226 one year earlier, Realtor.com said.
