A record 26 percent of homebuyers are looking to move to a different part of the country, according to a new report from Redfin.
That’s up from 24 percent a year ago and roughly 19 percent before the pandemic began.
Elevated mortgage rates have cooled the overall housing market, with fewer homes for sale and fewer buyers in the market. But a high portion of the homebuyers who are moving are relocating to different metro areas. There are 7 percent fewer Redfin.com users looking to move away from their home metro than a year ago. That’s compared with a 16.5 percent decline for those searching within their home metro.
Relocations are holding up better than in-metro moves largely because homebuyers are searching for affordability, and remote work gives many Americans the freedom to move. Nine of the 10 most popular migration destinations have a lower median home-sale price than the most common origin of homebuyers moving in.
“Half of the buyers I’m working with are moving in from out of town, all but one from the Bay Area,” Alison Williams, a Redfin Premier agent in Sacramento, said in a release. “Most of them are moving not necessarily because they can’t afford the Bay Area, but because they want a bigger home and better quality of life. They’re searching for high-end homes with spacious yards where they can raise a family. I’m also working with a few investors who are looking to buy a home here and rent it out for a few years before moving in themselves.”
Sacramento, Calif., for instance, is the most popular destination for relocating homebuyers. The typical home in that metro sells for $575,000, nearly a million dollars less than the typical home in San Francisco ($1,480,000), the most popular origin of buyers moving in. With a 7-percent mortgage rate – roughly the average for August – the monthly payment for the median-priced Sacramento home is $3,889, compared with $10,010 for the median-priced San Francisco home.
After Sacramento, Las Vegas and three Florida metros – Orlando, North Port-Sarasota and Tampa – are the most popular destinations for homebuyers looking to relocate.
Myrtle Beach, S.C., climbed to sixth after debuting on Redfin’s list of most popular destinations in July at number nine. Another Florida metro, Cape Coral, is also in the top 10.
Those metros have a few things in common: They’re more affordable than the most common origin of homebuyers moving in, and they face increasing climate risks. Sacramento and Las Vegas face severe heat risk, Orlando, North Port-Sarasota, Myrtle Beach and Cape Coral face extreme wind/hurricane risk, and Tampa and Cape Coral are at extreme risk of flooding.
While research has shown that homebuyers consider climate risk when deciding where to live, affordability is often a more significant factor. A recent Redfin survey found that roughly 8 percent of U.S. residents likely to move within the next year are doing so because they’re concerned about the impact of climate change on their previous area, compared with 22 percent moving for a lower cost of living.