32.5% of 2025 Airbnb Market Searches Focused in Just 3 US States: Chalet Data Reveals Sun Belt’s Enduring Pull

Chalet, a data-first platform for short-term rentals (STR), today released its year-end analysis of Airbnb calculator search patterns in 2025, based on tens of thousands of searches across 3,080 cities throughout all 50 U.S. states. The data reveals emerging Airbnb markets and cooling former hotspots, offering early signals of shifting short-term rental dynamics heading into 2026. By analyzing where and what users searched on Chalet’s free STR investment tools, the company identified key behavioral trends that offer a directional guide for 2026 planning.

Key Insights

• Sun Belt Leads: Florida, California, and Texas - the top 3 states - comprised 32.5% of all Airbnb searches on Chalet in 2025, reflecting continued Sun Belt dominance.

• Search activity translated into execution: The Sun Belt’s appeal carried through to actual purchases. Florida, Texas, and California were also the top destinations for Chalet-assisted acquisitions, together accounting for 69% of the platform’s 2025 closed deals.

• Regional Markets Outshine Big Cities: Secondary “drive-to” vacation markets saw higher engagement rates per listing than major cities, as regional destinations are targetted over traditional urban hotspots. Chalet users closed 205% more STR property deals in 2025 than the year prior, with big city markets accounting only for 27.3% of all closed deals.

• While capital deployment remains selectively, search behavior was broadly distributed: The most-searched individual market accounted for only about 1.8% of total searches. This underscores how widely distributed and fragmented market interest was in 2025 - no single city dominated.

• Regulation Havens Preferred: interest in regulation-heavy metros like New York City and Los Angeles was negligible - under 0.2% of all searches, underscoring that markets with strict STR rules are being avoided.
  

“The overwhelming focus on Sun Belt states is both a warning and an opportunity.” said Ashley Durmo, CEO of Chalet. “It shows where momentum is strongest, but also where markets may be overheating. Our goal is to arm users with unbiased data so they can spot the next big market or avoid the next saturated hotspot.”

Regional Markets Gain Edge Over Major Cities

In 2025, search activity skewed toward secondary and drive-to markets in greater numbers than the traditional big-city vacation hubs. The data shows that many mid-sized vacation destinations had higher engagement per property, meaning more searches on each listing, than large urban markets. For example, Sevierville, TN (a gateway to the Smoky Mountains) ranked as the #1 most-searched city on the platform with 1.8% of total searches, outranking any individual major city like Austin, TX (1.2%), Houston, TX (1.1%) or San Diego, CA (1.0%).

This trend holds across the broader dataset: almost 70% of the 30 most-searched STR markets in 2025 were regional or destination-driven markets rather than large urban metros. Nearly 73% of Chalet-assisted deals closed in 2025 occurred in regional markets, closely mirroring this search behavior. This suggests that search activity is expanding beyond the usual suspects, hunting for opportunities in regional gems where traveler demand is strong and competition may be lighter.

At the same time, even the most-searched individual market accounted for only about 1.8% of total searches. This underscores how widely distributed market interest was in 2025 - no single market dominated in search volume.

Chalet Users Drove 205% Deal Growth in 2025

The company also reported it closed 205% more STR property deals in 2025 compared to the previous year, a testament to the platform’s growth and the surging momentum in short-term rental investments. This more-than doubling of deal activity indicates that users aren’t just browsing data, they’re acting on it, converting analysis into executed transactions at a faster pace.

Notably, while market searches in 2025 were widely distributed across dozens of markets, actual purchases were more concentrated at the execution stage. Austin, TX emerged as the single most active market for closed deals, accounting for just over 9% of all transactions. A second tier of markets, including San Diego, CA; Fort Lauderdale, FL; Dallas, TX; Kissimmee, FL; and Myrtle Beach, SC, each represented roughly 6% of closed deals. Beyond these leaders, the remaining transactions were spread across a long tail of secondary and regional markets, most contributing low-single-digit shares.

This pattern highlights a key behavioral insight: while execution remains selective, the research continues to be broad. The gap between where market searches and market transactions underscore the importance of inventory visibility, detailed ROI modeling, and market-level insights that help narrow a wide universe of opportunities into execution-ready decisions. Regularly monitoring market search behavior, apart from key Airbnb market metrics, is essential for staying ahead of emerging trends rather than reacting after capital has already moved.

Strict Regulations Suppress Market Interest

Another clear signal from the data is the dampening effect of strict short-term rental regulations on market interest. Interest in New York City, Los Angeles, and other regulation-heavy metros was virtually nil - under 0.2% of all city-level searches. Despite being large tourism markets, these markets attracted minimal attention within the broader search dataset, reflecting how restrictive regulatory frameworks significantly limit STR viability. In contrast, markets characterized by more stable and host-friendly policies consistently drew higher levels of engagement. This pattern highlights the role of regulatory environment as a critical market filter, alongside traditional performance metrics such as occupancy and yield, shaping where short-term rental activity concentrates over time.

About Chalet

Chalet (www.GetChalet.com) is a real estate technology platform that helps users discover, analyze, and buy short-term rental properties with confidence. The platform offers free Airbnb market analytics, interactive performance data, ROI calculators, and a nationwide network of STR-savvy agents and lenders - all with no costs or paywalls. By combining transparent data with user-friendly tools, Chalet supports data-driven analysis of short-term rental markets. Founded in 2021 and based in San Diego, the platform has become a widely used resource for understanding vacation rental performance across the U.S. The company also plans to introduce an AI Copilot in 2026 to support more efficient data interpretation and market trends comparisons.

The full 2025 analysis and the free interactive market dashboard are available on Chalet’s website.