Out of State Property Owners: Which States Lead? (2026)

Key findings (DealMachine Out-of-State Owner Index, October 2026)

• 11,217,212 U.S. properties are owned by someone who lives in another state, according to DealMachine parcel data.
• New Mexico has the highest share in the country: 22.2% of all parcels.
• Florida has the most by count, with 1,406,711 out-of-state-owned properties.
• 85% of these owners have 50%+ equity, and 66% (7,445,617) own the property free and clear.

11,217,212 properties in the U.S. are owned by someone who lives in a different state. In New Mexico, that's more than 1 in 5 parcels, the highest share in the country.

The number I'd pay more attention to is the next one. 7,445,617 of those properties are owned free and clear. No mortgage, no lender to negotiate with, and an owner who likely hasn't walked the property in a while.

How We Counted

The Out-of-State Owner Index is a full count, not a sample. For every parcel in our database, we compared the property's state to the state on the owner's mailing address.

• Out-of-state-owned: the owner's mailing address is in a different state than the property.
• Share of parcels: out-of-state-owned properties divided by all parcels in the state, including homes, rentals, and vacant land.
• Overlaps: standard DealMachine filters for equity, free and clear, tired landlord, tax delinquent, and vacant.

Two limits. The mailing address is where the tax bill goes, so owners who use a business or attorney's address may be misclassified. And this group is narrower than absentee owners, who just don't live at the property and could live across the street. Our guide to absentee owner lists covers that broader group.

Which States Have the Most Out-of-State Owners

Rank	State	Out-of-state-owned properties	Share of parcels
1	Florida	1,406,711	13.06%
2	Texas	650,348	4.65%
3	North Carolina	550,803	9.39%
4	Arizona	410,946	13.57%
5	California	386,095	3.22%
6	Georgia	351,247	7.22%
7	New Mexico	323,997	22.20%
8	Ohio	319,982	4.98%

These eight states hold 4.4 million out-of-state-owned properties, or 39% of the national total. Florida alone has more than twice as many as Texas.

Vacation and retirement states lead by share

State	Share of parcels owned from out of state	Group
New Mexico	22.2%	Highest
Vermont	17.7%	Highest
Nevada	17.5%	Highest
Hawaii	16.2%	Highest
District of Columbia	15.7%	Highest
Maine	15.7%	Highest
New York	4.47%	Lowest
Massachusetts	4.32%	Lowest
California	3.22%	Lowest

The top of this list is mostly second-home country: ski and lake houses in Vermont and Maine, mainland owners in Hawaii, and Californians in Nevada. Florida and Arizona, both above 13%, rank high on count for the same reason: snowbirds and retirees.

New Mexico is partly a land story. Its large rural lot subdivisions were sold to out-of-state buyers for decades. D.C. is the outlier. Many of its owners live a few miles away in Maryland or Virginia, so they're out of state but not far away.

California is the exception

California has the lowest share at 3.22%, followed by Massachusetts (4.32%) and New York (4.47%). These are expensive, populous states where in-state buyers own nearly everything. California still ranks 5th by count because it has close to 12 million parcels.

Here's how I read it. California money tends to flow outward, into places like Arizona and Nevada, following the playbook in our long-distance real estate investing guide. That fits the pattern, but this count doesn't prove it on its own.

The Equity and Free-and-Clear Overlaps

Out-of-state-owned properties that are also…	Count	Share
50%+ equity	9,569,317	85%
Free and clear	7,445,617	66%
Tired landlords	929,666	8.3%
Tax delinquent	392,664	3.5%
Vacant	299,785	2.7%

85% of out-of-state owners have at least half the property's value in equity, and 66% have no mortgage at all. That's a heavier skew toward paid-off ownership than our free and clear properties by state report shows nationally. Many of these owners likely bought decades ago, inherited the property, or paid cash for a second home.

Let me give you a simple example. An owner who lists a free-and-clear $200,000 house pays roughly $12,000 to $16,000 in commissions and closing costs, plus repairs managed by phone and a flight or two. A clean cash offer below list can net them a similar amount with far less work.

The Landlord-Fatigue Angle

929,666 out-of-state-owned properties are flagged as tired landlords, meaning rentals that show signs the owner is ready to be done. Our Tired Landlord Index explains the filter.

Distance makes landlord fatigue worse. A local owner drives over when the water heater fails. An out-of-state owner pays a property manager 8% to 12% of monthly rent and approves repairs from photos.

Two smaller groups are worth a look. 392,664 are tax delinquent, and some of those owners simply lost track of a bill in another state (see our absentee owner tax delinquent properties report). Another 299,785 are vacant, which is a cost with no income attached.

How to Reach Owners Who Live in Another State

1. Mail to the owner's mailing address, not the property. Most beginners miss this. A letter to the property reaches a tenant or an empty mailbox.
2. Name the property in the first line. Many own just one property in your market, so use the street address and city.
3. Talk about distance, not price. Offer a remote close through a title company with mobile notary or e-signing so they never make the trip.
4. Skip trace for phones and email. Follow Do Not Call and TCPA rules, and call during their local hours, not yours.
5. Follow up for 6 to 12 months. Free-and-clear owners aren't under pressure. They sell when the timing works for them.

Build Your Out-of-State Owner List

The national number is 11.2 million. The number that matters is the one in your county. Build an out-of-state, free-and-clear owner list in DealMachine and mail them in their home state.

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