SerpApi.Org
The country has gone "ranch mad," and it's not only on the TV screen.
Nationally, homes defined as ranches had a median listing price of $769,750 as of June 2026, up a staggering 112% from 10 years earlier, according to the latest Realtor.com® Luxury Housing Report. For comparison, the national median listing price for all homes rose about 66% over the same 10-year period.
"Ranch properties aren't just riding the broader housing market up: They're outpacing it by a significant margin," Realtor.com senior economist Anthony Smith writes in the report.
Western-style ranches have skyrocketed in popularity thanks in part to the multitude of TV series depicting ranch life, including "Yellowstone," "The Madison," "1923," and "Dutton Ranch," Smith notes.
These shows "introduced ranch culture to a much broader audience, drawing in viewers who fell for the sweeping landscapes and rugged lifestyle long before they ever considered owning a piece of it themselves," he says.
While real estate agents have been saying for several years that the "Yellowstone" effect has driven a rise in affluent city folk snapping up ranches and farms in states such as Montana (where "Yellowstone" is set), Idaho, Wyoming, and Texas, the report shows just how much the ranch trend in popular culture coincides with the rise in real ranch prices.
It's worth noting that "Yellowstone," which starred Kevin Costner, debuted on the Paramount Network in summer 2018 and ran for five seasons, coinciding with this run-up in prices. The Montana-based neo-Western, created by Taylor Sheridan, was a smash hit, spawning five spinoffs: "1883," "1923," "The Madison," "Marshalls," and "Dutton Ranch."
Then there's Netflix's "The Ranch," and Sheridan's "Landman," which centers on the oil industry, but contains plenty of alluring scenes of the open plains of West Texas, where it's filmed.
When it comes to ranch listings by volume, Texas leads the pack by far, claiming 4 of the top 5 metros nationally. The Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX, metro has the most active ranch listings as of June 2026, with 727, and a median price tag of $1.4 million.
In volume, the Austin metro is followed by Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX (640); San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX (564); Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, TN (315); and Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX (274), nipping closely at the spurred heels of Austin, with a median price tag of $1,399,475.
Drilling down deeper to counties, Hays has the priciest listings, with a $2,000,102 median, followed closely by Williamson at $1.9 million. But Burnet has the most listings at 237 and a lower median price of $990,000.
"Ranches in these areas are spread across a ring of counties in the Hill Country and rural fringe, where there is abundant acreage," says the report.
The only non-Texas metro in the top 10 is Marion, FL, with 171 ranch listings and a hefty $1.5 million median price tag.
The 'Yellowstone' effect is real
"We've definitely noticed increased interest since shows like 'Yellowstone' and, more recently, 'Landman,' brought ranch ownership and the energy industry into mainstream conversation," Don Davis at Douglas Elliman Dallas tells Realtor.com. "The cultural influence of 'Yellowstone' and 'Landman' have made a huge impact."
The agent currently represents a $2.2 million ranch in Adkins, TX. The three-bedroom home comes with 46 acres, a three-stall barn, multiple sheds for livestock, and a natural ravine for watering.
Davis says many of his ranch-loving clients have relocated from cities—especially Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City—not only for value, but also for a slower, more land-connected way of life.
"Some clients mention these shows because they capture the appeal of owning land and living a more rural lifestyle," he says. He notes that many buyers are fairly young tech people who have cashed out and retired from the rat race.
These baby ranchers don't necessarily want to make a living running a beef cattle operation, but they keep enough livestock for their land to qualify as agricultural, giving them a much lower property tax rate. Additionally, they desire a healthier lifestyle—growing their food, raising chickens for eggs—and believe that land is a conservative way to create generational wealth.
But the broker admits that plenty of city folk aren't prepared for the amount of work it takes to operate even a small a ranch.
"This definitely isn't for the lazy," he says with a laugh.
The appeal of the ranch life isn't difficult to grasp. For the same price as a luxury condo, one can live on an abundance of acreage with plenty of privacy and nature—not to mention a lower tax base.
Celebrities and influencers have been trading in the traffic snarls and career hustle of Los Angeles for the wide plains of Texas and the rugged mountains of Montana.
In 2020, "Dawson's Creek" star James Van Der Beek and his large family relocated from Beverly Hills to a 36-acre ranch in Spicewood, just outside of Austin. Sadly, the actor would die of colorectal cancer only a few years later at age 48, just after purchasing the ranch for $4.76 million.
And there's a long list of notables who own ranches in Montana, including "Yellowstone" and "Marshals" actor Luke Grimes and "Yellowstone" actor Cole Hauser.
Where are the luxury ranches?
While the Jackson, WY-ID, metro has only 22 ranch listings, they come at a hefty $7,887,500 median price tag, the highest in the country, and nearly $3 million above second-place Bozeman, MT.
Idaho shows up twice in the top five. Idaho Falls and Hailey have only a small handful of listings, but steep median price tags, at $2.85 million and $2.75 million, respectively.
Those priced out of Jackson have spilled into the Idaho side of the Teton Mountains, giving Teton County, ID, a median of $3,697,940. Realtor.com took into account only the metros with at least 10 ranches for sale—but if the scope had widened, Teton, WY, would jump to the top of the list with its nose-bleed median price of just over $25 million. But it's mere eight listings disqualified it.
The only metro on the list not located in the Greater Yellowstone region is Durango, CO, coming in with 25 active listings and a $3,395,000 median price tag.
If you want to zoom in to the most expensive ranch real estate by county, Blaine, ID (home to longtime wealthy playgrounds Sun Valley and Hailey), sits at the top with a mere 16 listings and an eye-popping $7 million median price. Due to the small number of listings, county price tags are especially sensitive to outliers.
It's out West that ranch listings are "scarce and priced like trophy assets, with medians running into the millions on just a handful of properties," concludes the report.
Working ranches
When it comes to ranches, there are "playgrounds" and there are working ranches—and some combine both.
In June, a family ranch in West Texas that hadn't changed hands for 60 years was sold for the whopping price of $46 million.
But the 29,071 deeded acres of the Y Bar O Ranch didn't sell to a billionaire wanting to live out his weekend "Yellowstone" dreams while sitting comfy in his log mansion. The ranch was snapped up by a genuine local rancher who wanted the property for its well-oiled calf-and-cow operation and updated infrastructure.
Listing agent Chad Dugger of Hall and Hall previously told Realtor.com that ranches such as this one are incredibly expensive and don't produce much income, so to keep them well maintained, there usually has to be an outside source of income. The original owner, William Blake "Dub" Yarborough, was a successful oilman.
"These sale prices are so much greater than the production value," he says. "You can't pay for these ranches on what the land will produce. Buyers have some kind of outside means of income to purchase and support it."
Trophy ranches
The trophy ranches—where luxury and recreation are more important than tending livestock (which a ranch manager leasing the land does, anyway)—tend to be clustered in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana, especially in the Greater Yellowstone region, the same Wyoming-Montana-Idaho stretch the Taylor Sheridan shows are set in.
"The price premium isn't just a 'ranch' premium. It's a premium on this particular landscape," says the report. These multimillion-dollar ranches come with hundreds, if not thousands, of acres, with abundant and diverse wildlife, panoramic mountain views, river frontage and thermal springs, and, sometimes, proximity to Yellowstone National Park.
Yet these luxe ranches—in the midst of so much natural beauty—are often a fairly quick commute to the nearest big town or airport.
The Ekwortzel Legacy Ranch 1896, which has been in the same family for 130 years, is currently on the market for $14 million. Spanning 566 acres, the working ranch supports hundreds of calf-cow pairs, bulls, and heifers.
But the wealthy future buyer won't be snapping up the property for the livestock—they'll abe buying it for the stunning vistas, ability to build a compound thanks to no zoning restrictions and no conservation easements, and superb angling along the Stillwater River.
Listing agent James Esperti of Fay Ranches says it was really in the early '90s—with the release of the Brad Pitt movie "A River Runs Through It"—that deep-pocketed city folk began clamoring for their own slice of Big Sky paradise.
"That movie launched my career," he says with a laugh.
"It's ridiculous, but yes," he says when asked whether he's seen an uptick in ranch buys since the Sheridan shows began flooding the airwaves. "That show 'Yellowstone'—I can't tell you how many people would reference that show."
Not that he thinks that Hollywood offers buyers a realistic view of ranch life.
"It was so unrealistic," he says of the show. "They were killing people, shooting people like it was the Old West. That doesn't happen."
But he notes that long before TV was invented, ranches were key assets of the ultrawealthy. In the 1920s, John D. Rockefeller Jr. purchased 35,000 acres in Jackson Hole to protect the land from development.
"The true wealth of our country have always owned ranches, all over the world," Esperti says. "It's a hard asset in a world of intangible investments. People want to sink $10 million or $20 million into something that's real, and that they can enjoy at the same time.
"What we sell with these ranches, you can't re-create it," he adds. "It's not a golf course—you can't build another one. What we sell is a unique asset. Mother Nature only made so much of it."
