Amid high rates and home prices, buyers in the US are looking to relocate to affordable areas, especially in Florida, says a Redfin report
A report by real estate Redfin notes that the proportion of its website’s users looking to move to a different metropolitan area is near an all-time high, as high rates and prices are increasing the appeal of affordable places.
According to the data, the Florida coast is especially popular, even after being hit by Hurricane Ian.
Redfin found that nearly a quarter (24.1%) of homebuyers looked to move to a different metropolitan area in the three months ending in October, matching the record of 24.2% set in the third quarter.
“That’s up from about 18% in 2019, before the pandemic ushered in the era of remote work that gave many Americans more flexibility to relocate,” Redfin says.
The report indicates that homebuyers are looking to move to the Sun Belt, especially Florida. Sacramento, Las Vegas and Miami were also the most popular destinations for Redfin.com users looking to relocate, followed by San Diego and Tampa.
Popularity is determined by net influx, which is the number of people looking to move into a metropolitan area minus the number of people looking to leave.
Half of the top 10 migration destinations are in Florida (Cape Coral, North Port-Sarasota and Orlando are on the list, in addition to Miami and Tampa): “This is despite the fact that the state was hit by Hurricane Ian, one of the deadliest and most destructive storms in US history, in September,” the analysis notes.
Relatively affordable Sun Belt metropolitan areas are often the most popular with relocating homebuyers, largely because buyers can get more homes for less money. In Las Vegas, for example, the typical home was $410,000 in October, about half the price of a typical home in Los Angeles ($823,000), the most common origin for people to move there.
According to Redfin, buyers are leaving expensive West Coast and East Coast cities: “More homebuyers looked out of San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, DC, and Boston than any other metropolitan area. important”.
“Homebuyers tend to leave expensive coastal workplaces more than other locations, a trend that started before the pandemic and accelerated due to remote work and rising housing costs,” Redfin says. “Usually they go to more affordable regions. Sacramento, where houses cost less than half what they do in the Bay Area, is the most common destination for people leaving San Francisco, for example.”
Top 10 metro areas where homebuyers are moving, based on net inflow:
- Sacramento, California, with a net flow of 7,800 buyers
- Las Vegas, Nevada, 7,100
- Miami, Florida, 6,700
- San Diego, Calif., 6,500
- Tampa, Florida, 5,600
- Phoenix, Arizona, 4,700
- Cape Coral, Florida, 4,600
- North Harbor-Sarasota, FL, 4,300
- Dallas, TX, 3800
- Orlando, Florida, 3,700
(Net Inflow is equal to the number of Redfin.com home seekers looking to move to a metro area, minus the number of seekers looking to leave.)
For more details on the report, click here.