Driven out by high costs, Americans are still relocating at a record pace

As home prices skyrocket nationwide, the number of Americans seeking to relocate somewhere more affordable is continuing to soar, despite climbing mortgage rates, according to a new report. 

A record 32.3 percent of Redfin.com users nationwide sought to move to a new metropolitan area during the first quarter of 2021, an increase from the first quarter of 2021, when 31.5 percent were considering a relocation, according to data released Wednesday from Redfin.

While a prevailing narrative of the pandemic housing market has been white-collar workers relocating to dream locales after being freed from the shackles of office work, As Inman reported in March, Redfin’s latest data suggests a new wave of migration is cresting out of sheer necessity, as housing markets become increasingly expensive amid dramatic increases in home prices and mortgage rates.

Redfin data shows an increase in the outflow of expensive coastal cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle, with many homebuyers looking to relocate to low-cost areas like Phoenix and Austin, Texas. In doing so, however, wandering homebuyers have driven prices in sunbelt cities in Texas and Florida higher and higher, stretching the designation “affordable” to its limits.