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Editor:
Published: Nov 29, 2022 3 min read
Aerial view of the Las Vegas strip in Nevada
Las Vegas, Nevada

The housing market has changed a lot over the past year, but at least one thing has remained the same: Sunny cities in warm states continue to attract homebuyers.

Just over 24% of U.S. homebuyers looked to relocate to a new city in August, September and October, according to new data from the real estate brokerage Redfin — on par with the record high earlier this year. In the same period in 2019, before the pandemic, roughly 18% of homebuyers were looking to move to a new city.

Redfin used searches by 2 million users on its platform to determine the share of potential homebuyers who want to move to a different metro area. If a user viewed at least 10 home listings within the three-month period ending in October, and at least one of the listings was in a different city, Redfin considers these individuals to be "migrants" in the market to relocate.

10 cities where homebuyers want to relocate

Here are the 10 most popular cities among Redfin users looking to relocate:

  1. Sacramento, California
  2. Las Vegas, Nevada
  3. Miami, Florida
  4. San Diego, California
  5. Tampa, Florida
  6. Phoenix, Arizona
  7. Cape Coral, Florida
  8. North Port-Sarasota, Florida
  9. Dallas, Texas
  10. Orlando, Florida

All 10 are located in the Sun Belt regions, which were also wildly popular with homebuyers during the pandemic because metro areas there have good weather and affordable cost of living — at least when compared to big coastal cities.

Now, with mortgage rates averaging 6.58%, Redfin attributes the ongoing popularity of these markets to that relative affordability. As housing in cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York becomes even more expensive, many homeowners are turning to places with lower costs of living and more space.

Redfin notes that a typical home in Las Vegas cost $410,000 in the three months ending in October, compared to $823,000 for a typical home in Los Angeles.

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