With the rising costs of housing and difficulty finding affordable options, some homeowners believe relocating is their best choice.
A report published Friday by the real estate firm Redfin.com found a record 32.6% of users sought to move from one metro area to another in the second quarter, with surging costs putting expensive metro areas out of reach. While home sales are falling and supply is starting to rise following a pandemic-driven buying frenzy, homebuyers who can afford to relocate are doing so at "unprecedented levels," the report found.
Prior to the pandemic, roughly 26% of users were looking to move into new areas, compared to 32.3% in the first quarter of 2022 and 32.6% in the second quarter.
Among the two million users sampled in the recent study, San Francisco had the most users looking to leave out of any major U.S. metro area. Rounding out the top five were Los Angeles, New York, Washington D.C. and Seattle.
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As remote work gains popularity, more homebuyers are moving out of more expensive cities compared to a year ago.
According to the real estate website, net outflow increased year over year in four of the five top places people are leaving, with the exception of New York.
The top 10 metro areas ranked by net outflow are listed below:
- San Francisco
- Los Angeles
- New York
- Washington, D.C.
- Seattle
- Boston
- Detroit
- Denver
- Chicago
- Minneapolis
