Where STR Investors Are Actually Buying in 2026: A First-Party Data Analysis of 9,000+ Buyer Searches

Most STR market rankings are looking the wrong direction

Most "best STR market" rankings tell you where the most short-term rentals already exist, or where existing properties are performing best on backward-looking revenue. Useful, but it's a rear-view-mirror exercise.

This ranking is different. We pulled every saved search a buyer manually configured on Rabbu between February 2023 and May 2026 — 9,097 searches from 5,910 distinct buyers — and ranked the markets by where buyers are actively shopping right now. This is demand-side intent data: what investors are looking for, before they buy.

Here's what we found.

The top 15 markets STR investors are searching

Ranked by total user-created saved searches, with the unique-user count and recent-share to control for one-time spikes.

Three patterns jump out

1. Florida is the gravitational center.

Five of the top 12 markets are in Florida — the state itself, plus Orlando, Kissimmee, Miami, and Destin. Combined, Florida-tagged searches account for roughly 760 of the top 15's 1,461 searches, or 52%. The Orlando–Kissimmee corridor specifically (the Disney-adjacent vacation rental belt) drove 274 of those, with 250 unique buyers. If you're underwriting an STR purchase in 2026, Florida is the market with the most active buyer competition.

2. The Smokies are still a top-3 market — but the buyer profile has changed.

Gatlinburg ranked #3 with 111 searches from 103 unique buyers. Add Sevierville and Pigeon Forge and the Smokies cluster pulls 192 searches — neck-and-neck with Orlando. The cabin market is alive. But, as we'll show, buyers are now shopping at lower price points than they were in 2024.

3. State-level searches dominate the top of the list.

Florida, California, North Carolina, Colorado, Texas, and Tennessee all rank in the top 14 as statewide searches. That's a meaningful pattern: a large share of buyers are still in the "which state should I buy in" phase, not the "which neighborhood in Kissimmee" phase. There's a content opportunity here — state-level guides outperform city-level ones for top-of-funnel buyers.

What buyers actually filter for

Region is just the start. Once a buyer picks a market, here's what they layer on top, ranked by how often each filter appears in user-created searches:

The typical 2026 STR buyer search, in plain language

If we average across the data, here's what the modal buyer is shopping for in 2026:

• A house (74% of property-type searches)
• In Florida, the Smokies, the Gulf Coast, or a Sun Belt city
• Between $300K and $500K — the median price floor and ceiling
• With at least 2 or 3 bedrooms
• Targeting at least 15% gross yield
• Active on the market (99.8% of searches filter to active listings)

That's the dead center of the demand curve. Properties matching that profile see the most buyer attention.

The amenity wishlist

When buyers go beyond standard filters and add free-text keywords to a saved search, two amenities dominate:

• Pool — appeared in 131 searches across spelling variants. The single most-searched amenity.
• Waterfront — 139 searches across waterfront, lake, beachfront, and ocean view variants.

A meaningful chunk of buyers — about 70 searches — also configured filters explicitly looking for the words "airbnb," "VRBO," "STR," or "short term rental" in listing descriptions. They were fishing in MLS data for properties already operating as rentals, before Rabbu's STR-specific tags existed. The lesson for sellers and listing agents: putting STR-relevant language in the MLS description is a buyer magnet.

Property tags — the validated-STR signal

In 2025, Rabbu rolled out property tags that mark whether a listing is a current STR, has STR potential, was previously an STR, has verified "actual financials," or is an agent pick. Buyers adopted these tags fast. Among the user-created searches that filter on tags:

• Current STR: 866 searches — by far the most-used tag. Buyers want proven income-producing properties.

• STR Potential: 548 searches. The next-best signal.

• Former STR: 510 searches. Buyers will consider properties that ran as an STR before.

• Actual Financials: 133 searches. Smaller, but high-intent — these are buyers explicitly demanding verified income data.

The pattern is clear: when given the option, buyers strongly prefer listings with proven STR history over speculative ones. This is a major shift from the 2021–2022 era when buyers would underwrite based on AirDNA projections alone.

So where should you be looking?

If you're an investor in 2026, the data points to four buckets worth focusing on:

• Florida vacation corridors (Orlando–Kissimmee, Destin, Miami, Panama City Beach) — the deepest buyer pool, also the most competition.
• Smoky Mountains (Gatlinburg, Sevierville, Pigeon Forge) — buyer demand is steady but the ceiling has dropped, meaning sellers are softer.
• Gulf Coast secondary markets (Myrtle Beach, Gulf Shores) — solid demand, lower price points than Florida proper.
• Sun Belt growth cities (Nashville, Austin, Houston, Scottsdale, Atlanta) — STR demand layered on top of population growth.

Wherever you focus, prioritize listings tagged as a current STR or with verified financials. The market in 2026 has moved past speculative underwriting — buyers want proof. 

Methodology

This analysis draws from 9,097 saved searches manually created by 5,910 distinct users on Rabbu between February 21, 2023 and May 7, 2026. We excluded approximately 291,000 system-generated "recommended" searches (auto-created from user behavior or onboarding flows) to isolate true buyer intent. Time periods are defined as: 2023 (Feb–Dec 2023), 2024 (full year), and 2025-26 (Jan 2025 – May 2026). All percentages reflect the share of user-created searches with a non-null filter value for the relevant field.