The top 10 cities home buyers want to relocate to this spring

A great migration is sweeping the nation’s housing markets as home buyers seek relief from the growing affordability crisis.

The era of remote work has enabled unprecedented flexibility and prospective homebuyers are taking advantage, according to Redfin. The brokerage reported 32.3% of its users looked to relocate in January and February, chasing affordable locales amid record home prices and sharp mortgage rate hikes. That relocation search rate is up from 31.5% in Q1 2021 and 26% in 1Q 2020, which was the last quarter before the coronavirus pandemic affected the market.

San Francisco residents were the nation’s most eager to move, followed by those living in the country’s largest and pricest metros in Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C. and Seattle. Younger homebuyers may be looking inward, but the East and West Coasts, and Texas, remain popular destinations, with buyers finding more bang for their buck in trendy, and sometimes overlooked, markets.

Redfin sampled 2 million users who searched for homes across 111 metro areas in January and February, counting homebuyers who viewed at least 10 homes and 80% of their searches in new metros. The brokerage then ranked the top relocation markets by net inflow, or how many Redfin users looked to move into the markets versus leave. The top out-of-state origin is listed if the majority of prospective relocating homebuyers come from within the same state.