FLORIDA — Zillow and Rover have teamed up to determine America’s top 20 fastest-growing dog-friendly cities. Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is the Sunshine State’s fastest-growing dog-friendly city, according to the research.
The research by Zillow found that Antioch, Tennessee, is the country’s fastest-growing dog-friendly community, according to Zillow.
To find the fastest-growing dog-friendly cities, Rover and Zillow said they considered newly registered dog-owner accounts from Rover’s database of millions of pet profiles and Zillow page views of pet-friendly single-family home rental listings.
Zillow Group, Inc. is a digital real-estate marketplace company. Rover is the world’s largest online marketplace for pet care.
The data revealed that Antioch, near Nashville, ranks No. 1. It landed the top spot primarily because it saw the most significant annual increase in new Rover dog accounts out of all cities analyzed, according to an announcement by Zillow and Rover.
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The city also had a significant increase in Zillow page-view traffic to pet-friendly single-family rental units, up 62.2% from last year, Zillow said.
Rounding out the top five are Baltimore, Maryland (No. 2); Alexandria, Virginia (No. 3); Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina (No. 4); and Kansas City, Kansas (No. 5), each seeing double-digit page-view growth since last year.
Nearly three-quarters (72%) of dog parents surveyed would consider moving to a home that better suits their dog’s needs, Zillow said.
According to Zillow, previous Zillow research shows that 61% of recent homeowners and 57% of renters are pet owners, underscoring this demographic’s impact on overall national housing demand.
“We saw pandemic pet ownership soar among renters, which has impacted their home preferences,” said Amanda Pendleton, Zillow’s home trends expert.
“More renters now report owning at least one pet, compared to 2020. Like recent movers on the whole, they appear to be seeking out more space and relative affordability in places where they can get a fenced backyard or room for a doghouse.”
Top 20 fastest-growing dog-friendly cities, according to Zillow and Rover:
- Antioch, Tennessee
- Baltimore, Maryland
- Alexandria, Virginia
- Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina
- Kansas City, Kansas
- Cumming, Georgia
- Bellevue, Washington
- Fort Lauderdale, Florida
- Palo Alto, California
- Charleston, South Carolina
- Lee’s Summit, Missouri
- Bentonville, Arkansas
- Denver, Colorado
- Tuscaloosa, Alabama
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Lewisville, Texas
- Chicago, Illinois
- Rochester, Minnesota
- Norman, Oklahoma
- Grand Rapids, Michigan
Just over half of the dog owners surveyed (57% said they find it challenging to find a dog-friendly rental, according to Zillow.
Research Methodology
The top 20 fastest-growing dog-friendly cities ranking is determined according to both new dog accounts between June 2021 and March 2022 from Rover’s database of millions of pet profiles, and Zillow rentals page-view data from March 2021 to March 2022.
For each city, Rover data on trends in new dog accounts was combined with Zillow data representing cities with the highest increases in average daily page views per pet-friendly single-family home rental listing over the year. Only the cities with the highest annual increase in share of new dog accounts on Rover and positive increases in annual average daily page views were considered in the final ranking, ordered by the increase in share of new dog accounts. Cities that didn’t have a sufficient data sample size from either company were excluded.
