The national share of home searchers looking to relocate to different geographical areas is at its highest level on record, tied with the fourth quarter of 2018, according to a report from Redfin.
The report found that 25 percent of home searchers on Redfin during the first quarter of 2019 looked to move to another metro area, up from 23 percent last year.
“People are feeling more confident about the economy and now feel financially secure enough to make a cross-country move to a metro where their money will go further,” Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather said in a release. “Homeownership may be out of reach for current residents of San Francisco or New York, but there are plenty of affordable homes and lower taxes in places like Phoenix, Atlanta and Austin. As more workers move to these places, there is a chicken and egg phenomenon where more companies open offices, which attracts even more workers."
Redfin said Phoenix had the highest net inflow of Redfin users in the first quarter. Sacramento was second. The net inflow for Phoenix reached 7,949, the highest level on record not only for Phoenix, but for any metro area to date since Redfin began reporting net migration data in early 2017.
“It is pretty rare for me to meet a homebuying client who was born or raised in Phoenix or even elsewhere in Arizona,” Phoenix-area Redfin agent Heather Corley said. “So many people are coming here from expensive cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle for our low cost of living and great weather. The trend is really increasing lately thanks to strong job growth and companies such as Allstate, Intel, Boeing, Microsoft and Facebook moving to the area.”
The report said New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Chicago top the list of cities from which people were departing.