Realtor.com Data Sheet
Polk County is the #1 place in America for out-of-town new-home shoppers.
Realtor.com tracked who is looking at newly built homes for sale across the country.
In the second quarter of 2026, 83.1% of the views on new-construction listings in the Lakeland-Winter Haven metro came from people outside the metro.
That’s the highest in the entire country.
📊 What This Means
Out-of-town interest in new homes is high everywhere right now. Nationally, 67.2% of views on new-construction listings came from outside the listing’s metro.
Polk was almost 16 points above that.
Put another way: for every 10 clicks on a new home for sale in Polk, more than 8 come from outside Polk. Across the rest of the country, it’s fewer than 7.
No other place in America is getting this much attention from people who don’t live here yet.
🏆 The Top 10 in the U.S.
- Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL: 83.1%
- Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL: 82.4%
- Port St. Lucie, FL: 80.9%
- North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, FL: 80.5%
- Durham-Chapel Hill, NC: 80.2%
- Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, FL: 78.5%
- Charleston-North Charleston, SC: 77.2%
- Stockton-Lodi, CA: 76.6%
- Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC: 76.2%
- Greenville-Anderson-Greer, SC: 75.9%
Five of the top six are in Florida.
Which tracks. According to the Census Bureau, about 65% of Florida residents weren’t born in Florida.
🗺️ Lakeland-Winter Haven Is Polk County
If you’re wondering why the report says “Lakeland-Winter Haven” and not Polk, it’s the same place.
Same boundary lines. Just a different name on the report.
So when Realtor.com says #1, they’re talking about us. For better or worse.
💰 The Reason
Price is the obvious answer.
The median list price for a new-construction home in Polk was $315,821. The national median was $450,256.
That’s about $134,000 less.
It’s also the lowest of the five Florida metros on the list. Cape Coral came in at $496,102, and Sarasota at $470,166.
🌴 The Good Life in Polk
Price gets people looking. Location seals it.
Polk sits right between Tampa and Orlando on I-4. Disney, Universal and the beaches on both coasts are all an easy day trip.
There are more than 550 lakes across the county.
And like the rest of Florida, there’s no state income tax.
One thing to be straight about: these numbers are listing views, not sales. Looking isn’t buying. But if you’ve noticed more new subdivisions, more out-of-state plates, and more new neighbors, this is a big part of why.
Sources: Realtor.com New Construction Insights, Q2 2026 (released Aug. 26, 2026); U.S. Census Bureau, 2024 American Community Survey.
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