Data Analysis

Zillow reported that engaged home shoppers per listing rose 42.9 percent in Jacksonville, 34.5 percent in Miami and 32.3 percent in Tampa in the second quarter of 2026, the three largest increases among the 50 metros it published, against 21.4 percent nationally.

Orlando was up 27.6 percent, so all four Florida metros beat the national rate and four of the six fastest-growing metros in the country are in Florida. Miami still has the second fewest shoppers per listing of any large metro, at 2.4.

Zillow reported on September 24, 2026 that the number of engaged home shoppers per for-sale listing rose 42.9 percent year over year in Jacksonville in the second quarter of 2026, 34.5 percent in Miami, 32.3 percent in Tampa and 27.6 percent in Orlando. The national figure in the same table was 21.4 percent. Only 11 of the 50 metros Zillow published beat that national rate, and all four Florida metros are among them. Miami's level remains the second lowest in the country at 2.4 engaged shoppers per listing, against 4.8 nationally.

Sorting Zillow's published growth column puts Jacksonville first, Miami second and Tampa third of the 50 metros, with San Francisco at 30.0 percent fourth, New Orleans at 29.2 percent fifth and Orlando sixth. That sort is this desk's, not Zillow's; the release names no growth ranking.

Which U.S. metros saw the biggest jump in home shoppers?

Three Florida metros, then everyone else. Jacksonville at 42.9 percent is more than double the national increase and more than twelve points clear of the fastest-growing metro outside Florida. Miami at 34.5 percent and Tampa at 32.3 percent follow. Orlando at 27.6 percent is the slowest of the four and still beats 44 of the other 49 metros.

At the other end, Seattle was essentially flat at 0.2 percent and Milwaukee fell 0.9 percent, the only decline in the table. Kansas City rose 5.5 percent, Houston 8.2 percent and Washington 8.4 percent.

Zillow put national home sales up 4.5 percent over the same period, so the shopper measure grew roughly five times as fast as closings did nationally. The release does not publish a metro-level sales comparison, so the same ratio cannot be worked out for any Florida market from this document.

Why does Miami have the fewest shoppers per listing?

Zillow does not say, and the number has two moving parts. Engaged shoppers per listing is a ratio, so it falls when the count of listings rises even if the number of shoppers holds steady. Miami's 2.4 can reflect a lot of listings as easily as it can reflect few shoppers, and the release publishes neither side separately.

What the release does establish is the company Miami keeps at that end of the table. Houston at 2.2 was the only large metro lower, with San Antonio at 2.9, Austin at 3.4 and Las Vegas at 3.4 next. The most competitive were Buffalo at 10.5 shoppers per listing, Providence at 9.5, Hartford at 8.5, San Francisco at 7.6 and Cleveland at 7.3.

So Miami sits in a group of high-supply Sun Belt and Texas markets rather than with the Northeast and Midwest metros where buyers are stacked up against few listings. That is a description of where the number falls, not an explanation of why.

What does an engaged shopper actually count?

A Zillow user who saved or shared a for-sale listing. That is the whole definition, and it is worth holding onto before reading too much into a 42.9 percent increase.

Saving a listing is not a tour, an offer or a mortgage application. Zillow's own framing is that it signals interest beyond casual browsing, which is a fair claim and a modest one. Kara Ng, a senior economist at Zillow, said that "This past spring gave us a window into what demand looks like when conditions are even modestly more favorable," and that "There is a lot of pent-up demand sitting on the sidelines, and the right conditions could open the floodgates."

Zillow also states that it updated the definition to exclude agent activity. The release does not say whether the year-ago figures were recalculated on the same basis, which matters for any year-over-year comparison in the table.

Within price tiers, Zillow reported a median of 8 engaged shoppers per listing on luxury homes, defined as the top 5 percent of values in a region, with growth of 25.7 percent. Bottom-tier homes, the 5th to 35th percentile, drew 2.7 shoppers per listing and grew 8.6 percent. Homes with four or more bedrooms drew 6.6 against 3.5 for two-bedroom homes.

Does any of this still hold in October?

The data is from the second quarter and the release points at the problem itself. Zillow noted that mortgage rates were at or below 6.5 percent heading into that quarter and that conditions have since tightened. Freddie Mac's weekly survey put the 30-year fixed at 7.40 percent for the week ending October 8, 2026, which is nearly a full point above the level that produced these shopper numbers.

So the right reading of the Florida figures is what demand looked like in the spring, not what it looks like now. Ng's framing treats that as the point, a glimpse of latent demand waiting on better rates. Nothing in the release tests whether that demand is still there four months and ninety basis points later. Current closed sales, inventory and days on market for every Florida market this desk tracks sit on the market data pages.

Limitations

The release carries three different numbers for the same national figure. Its title says a 20 percent spike, its body says 21 percent, and the metro table gives the United States at 21.4 percent. This article uses the table figure throughout and reports the discrepancy rather than resolving it. Engaged shoppers per listing is a ratio of Zillow platform activity to Zillow for-sale listings, so it measures behavior on one company's site and not the market as a whole, and it moves with the listing count as well as the shopper count. Zillow publishes neither component separately. The data covers the second quarter of 2026 against the second quarter of 2025 and was released September 24, 2026, so it was already a quarter old at publication and is older now. Zillow states that it updated the engaged-shopper definition to exclude agent activity and does not say whether prior-year figures were restated on that basis. The growth rankings and the count of metros above the national rate are this desk's sort of Zillow's published table, not Zillow's own statements. Only four Florida metros appear in the table, so this is not a statewide figure. The Freddie Mac rate is from Freddie Mac's own weekly survey and is included for context, not from the Zillow release.

Sources

Zillow, "A 20% spike in high-intent home shoppers signals pent-up demand," September 24, 2026, zillow.mediaroom.com, including the 50-metro table of engaged shoppers per listing and year-over-year growth for the second quarter of 2026. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, week ending October 8, 2026, freddiemac.com/pmms, for the 30-year fixed rate cited in the October context above.

Disclosure: Jon Brooks is a co-founder of Momentum Realty, a Florida real estate brokerage that owns and funds Florida Housing Intelligence. Momentum has a financial interest in Florida real estate transactions, including in markets named here. See our editorial standards.