A record 27 percent of home searchers looked to move to another metro area in April and May 2020, according to a report from Redfin.
The percentage of home searchers looking outside their area was up from 25.2 percent in the second quarter of 2019 and 26 percent in the first quarter of this year.
Redfin said the increase in users searching for out-of-town homes may be partly because of the coronavirus pandemic, as more people consider moving to suburbs and smaller towns with less crowding and more room to work from home.
“While there has been a huge increase in the number of people looking online at homes in small towns, the long-term impact of the pandemic on people actually moving from one part of the country to another remains to be seen,” Redfin Economist Taylor Marr said in a release. “People are starting to take the plunge and move away from big, expensive cities, though most of them were probably already considering a lifestyle change.
“The pandemic and the work-from-home opportunities that come with it is accelerating migration patterns that were already in place toward relatively affordable parts of the country,” Marr said. “But for many people, the lure of large homes in wide-open spaces will be a passing dream fueled by coronavirus-induced isolation.”
According to the report, page views of homes in towns with fewer than 50,000 residents were up 87 percent year-over-year in May, more than triple the 22 percent year-over-year increase in page views of homes in cities with more than 1 million residents.
The report found that New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles had the biggest net outflow of users in April and May. San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Seattle, Denver and Boston had small (less than 2 percent) increases in the share of people looking to move away since last year.
“People have always left the Bay Area for less expensive places. And Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe have always been popular destinations because home prices are lower and there’s no state income tax in Nevada,” Marr said. “As more companies follow in the footsteps of Facebook, Twitter and Slack in announcing permanent remote work policies, some tech workers are moving to different parts of the country — but most of them have other reasons to stay put, like friends, family and culture.”
Redfin said Phoenix, Sacramento and Las Vegas had the highest net inflow of users in April and May.
“Most of the homebuyers I meet are moving into town from other places because Sacramento gives them the best bang for their buck,” Redfin agent Kellee Davis said. “In the Bay Area, the size, quality and land that comes with properties don’t come close to what they can get for moving just an hour-and-a-half away.
“While I haven’t noticed an uptick in telecommuters from the Bay Area looking to move in, I have seen a lot of folks moving in because of job opportunities in Sacramento and nearby Davis, particularly in healthcare at Kaiser and UC Davis. Though some of my clients are concerned about the uncertainty of the market in the near future, they’re still willing to take the risk because they realize low mortgage rates make this a great time to buy rather than rent,” Davis said.