Abstract: With continuous reduction of rural resident population, a large number of homesteads are idle．In order to improve utilization rate of rural land resources and optimize allocation of construction land resources, a household survey on farmers with idle homesteads in Yantai City, Shandong Province, were conducted．Questionnaire survey, chi-square test and binary Logistic regression analysis were used to analyze willingness and influencing factors of farmers' idle homestead circulation．Results showed that 71.43% of farmers were willing to transfer idle homestead, of which 56.47% chose to rent idle homestead．Farmers' cognition of homestead property rights was insufficient, and their cognition of privatization was serious．Chi-square test showed that farmers' cognition of homestead ownership and mortgage was significantly related to their willingness to transfer idle homestead．Through establishment of a binary logistic regression model, it was concluded that educational level and annual household income of farmers were significantly positively correlated with willingness of farmers to transfer idle homesteads．Total family population, proportion of farming population, and number of years of idle homesteads that had been idle for longest time were significantly negatively correlated with willingness of farmers to transfer idle homesteads．Relevant suggestions were provided that relevant departments should enrich and revitalize utilization methods, strengthen policy publicity, deepen overall planning of urban and rural welfare system, break down barriers of dual structure, and rationally optimize utilization of idle homestead．