Richmond bucks "accidental landlord" trend amid hot housing market

State of play: The nationwide share of these "accidental landlord" rental listings on Zillow hit its highest level since late 2022 in October, according to the real estate site.

• That's when 2.3% of U.S. Zillow listings were posted for sale for at least two weeks, then delisted and relisted as a rental within three months of being off the market.
• The surge in rentals coincided with mortgage rates topping 7%.

Yes, but: Richmond's real estate market was once again an outlier in the nationwide trend, posting the 10th-lowest share of listings from these unintentional landlords in October.

• Richmond, Zillow notes, was one of its "10 hottest markets for 2026."

The latest: RVA's hot housing streak is unlikely to let up anytime soon.

• Last month, it posted the second-highest increase in home sales in the nation, per Homes.com.

• And Richmond's median home sale price hit $404,000 in March, making it about 4.9% higher than the national median.

Zoom out: Accidental landlords are most common in softer markets with more price cuts, Zillow found.

• Texas and Florida had 7 of the 10 metros with the highest shares of accidental landlords, while Denver led at 4.9%.
• Shares were lowest in the Northeast and Midwest markets, including Boston (0.6%), New York (0.7%), Chicago (1.3%) ... and Richmond.