From coast to coast, prospective home buyers are on the hunt for affordable prices — even if they’re out of town to find one.
According to a report released last week by real estate brokerage firm Redfin, a significant number of American home buyers are looking to relocate. The report ranks the cities Redfin users are trying to get out of — San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York topped the list.
“The typical home in San Francisco or San Jose now costs more than $1.5 million,” Redfin Deputy Chief Economist Taylor Marr said in the report. “Add in today’s 5%-plus mortgage rates and you have a hefty monthly payment.”
Marr said the lack of capacity is a tougher sell for cities than ever before, as remote work is increasing across large swathes of the country. In the second quarter of 2022, 33% of Redfin users searched for homes in new cities, up from 26% in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Here are the top seven cities that homebuyers are looking to move to, according to a Redfin report:
- San Francisco
- Angels
- new york
- Washington DC
- Seattle
- Boston
- Detroit
Denver, Chicago and Minneapolis round out the list’s top 10. Collectively, they represent some of the most populous cities in the country: only Minneapolis has fewer than 650,000 people, according to U.S. Census data.
Redfin analyzed more than 100 metro area searches from its 2 million users to compile the list. He developed parameters such as “net flow” and “net flow”, which are the number of people who want to enter a city compared to the number of people who want to leave.
According to the report, cities with high net flows are the ones that people want to leave the most. Similarly, these cities with the highest net incomes could see an influx of homeowners in the coming months:
- Miami
- Tampa, Florida
- Phoenix
- Sacramento, California
- Las Vegas
- Cape Coral, Florida
- San Diego
- North Port, Florida
- Saint Anthony
- Dallas
Florida, California, and Texas each have several cities on that list — perhaps indicating that Americans crave warmer weather, especially in the middle of summer. Florida is a particularly popular destination, accounting for four of the top 10 spots.
Many people search sites like Redfin without having any interest in buying a home. The company said its analysis excluded such searches. Marr noted that Redfin’s data typically matches U.S. Census migration patterns, indicating typical accuracy.
“We believe our data is a strong lead indicator for the right mobility decisions,” he said.
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