The number of home buyers looking to move to a new area continues to climb, according to a recently released report. The trend began when the pandemic first started early in 2020. The share of prospective home buyers thinking about moving metros grew as mitigation efforts changed the way we lived our day-to-day lives. Locations in the suburbs and exurbs saw an influx of interested buyers as remote work made the daily commute less of a factor in home buying decisions. Now, two years later, the share of relocating home buyers continues to grow. In fact, new numbers show that 32.3 percent of online home shoppers looked to move to a new city in the first quarter of this year. That’s up from 31.5 percent last year at the same time, and 26 percent in 2019. Of course, the option to work from home has something to do with it, but it’s not the only factor. Affordability also ranks high among the reasons buyers are weighing options farther from home. With prices and mortgage rates rising, more buyers are opting for areas where they can get more for their money. They’re also opting for sunshine, as the list of cities most popular with migrating buyers includes Miami, Phoenix, Tampa, Sacramento, and Las Vegas. (source)
SOCIAL MEDIA EDIT: There are more home buyers considering moving to a new area than there were before the pandemic. How far from your current home would you move?