Cost Seg Smart Research

Rental Property Opportunity Index 2026 — The Top 50 U.S. Markets

A proprietary ranking of U.S. markets on property values, investor and vacation-home ownership density, and investor search demand. The candidate universe is defined by a stated screen over every U.S. Census place and New England town, not a hand-picked list.

• The top 50 contains two structurally opposite market types that score almost identically: Avalon, NJ is 79.1% second-home and 0.8% long-term rental; Santa Monica is 63.2% long-term rental and 1.5% second-home
• Scored without a state cap, 22 of the top 50 would sit in California and only 11 states would appear; the published ranking caps each state at 3, bringing in 24 states
• Median price and depreciable basis are not the same quantity — land is never depreciable, and the gap is widest in the land-constrained coastal metros that rank highest on price

STR Cost Segregation Benchmarks by U.S. Market (2026)

Cross-market analysis of modeled cost segregation outcomes across 24 U.S. short-term rental and investor markets. 120 scenarios, five per market, each given the amenities typical of a rental of that kind, showing how what a property is and what it contains move the first-year deduction far more than what it costs.

• Median first-year deductions run from $50,947 (Chicago) to $418,487 (30A), a 8.2× spread for the same engine methodology
• 9 markets are in states with no income tax, where federal §168(k) is the whole story; 3 conform to federal bonus depreciation; 12 are decoupled or partially decoupled
• Three markets share a median modeled price of $1,325,000 and produce deductions 2.3× apart, because land allocation and assumed amenities differ

Reclassification Bands by Property Type

The reclassification band we publish for each property type, with the Year-1 deduction range it implies. Bands are measured on our own delivered studies where we have enough of a property type to measure one, and modeled by our engine on representative properties otherwise. They are the same figures our calculator and property pages use.