Florida metros continue to prove popular among people relocating within the United States. In 2022’s third quarter, according to Redfin, around 24% of U.S. homebuyers considered moving to a different metro. Five of the most popular metros in the top ten were in Florida.
The data found that the top metros in the United States by inflow in the third quarter of this year were:
- Sacramento, California—the top metro where people were moving to Sacramento from was San Francisco, with most out-of-staters coming from Chicago.
- Las Vegas, Nevada—the area saw most people moving in from Los Angeles.
- Miami—the top origins for people moving to this South Florida hotspot were from both New York City and New York State.
- San Diego, California—people were primarily coming from Los Angeles.
- Phoenix—again, most were moving here from Los Angeles.
- Cape Coral—most people moving to this Florida city came from Chicago.
- North Port-Sarasota—based on data, this part of Florida was getting the most new residents from Chicago.
- Dallas—Los Angeles was the top origin location of people moving to this Texas city.
- Orlando—most people, moving to Orlando were coming from New York City and State.
The results from the third quarter of this year were similar to the second quarter, but they were up from 2019, when 18% of buyers searched for houses in different metros.
While the housing market was cooling significantly during 2022’s second half, the people still buying homes at record levels are relocating to other metro levels to do so.
A big motivator is affordability, especially with rising interest rates and continuously high home prices that are making already-expensive parts of the country even more out of reach.
The Sun Belt metros are popular with homebuyers who are relocating because they will get more bang for their buck.
For example, in Los Angeles in October, the typical home costs around $823,000, while you can buy a home for around $410,000 on average in Las Vegas.
Based on the net outflow, homebuyers are looking to leave a few major metros more than others. These include San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, D.C. This is based on Redfin’s net outflow data, which looks at how many more people are leaving an area than are moving in.
Homebuyers tend to leave expensive coastal places traditionally considered job centers, a trend that started during the pandemic and appears to be continuing, even as remote work options are declining.
In 2022, Florida was the number one destination state for people moving in from other states, and the state saw almost 148,000 people move there.
New Yorkers made up almost 12% of the total moves in 2022, and then Michigan followed with 8%. The top five origin states are primarily in the North and Midwest, including New York, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Georgia is the only exception in the south.
Finally, the southern region of the country as a whole made up 55% of all home sales between January and March.
