Nearly 1 in 5 House Hunters Are Looking to Relocate as Long-Distance Moves Tick Up

• Redfin reports that Florida still dominates the list of most common migration destinations, though movement into the state has slowed since the pandemic boom.
• Homebuyers are leaving big-city job hubs like Los Angeles and New York. They're also moving away from the Bay Area, but that's not nearly as common as it was during the remote-work heyday.

Just under one in five (18.8%) house hunters looked to move to a different part of the country in the fourth quarter, according to a new report from Redfin, the real estate brokerage powered by Rocket. That's up slightly from 17.9% a year earlier and up from 15.9% about five years earlier.

Migration from one part of the country to another ticked up in 2025 as mortgage rates eased and more homes came on the market. While home sales were still slow, more buyers and renters were able to relocate. Remote work also remains more common than it was before the pandemic, allowing more Americans to relocate for affordability or lifestyle reasons without changing jobs.

"People are moving to Tennessee in droves—especially Nashville and its surrounding areas," said Aaron Glicken, a Redfin Premier agent in Nashville, TN. "Compared to the West Coast, where many of them are moving from, we have relatively low housing costs and lower taxes. A lot of the people moving here work remotely, while others take local tech, healthcare or music jobs. In one exclusive high-end neighborhood, more than half of the homeowners are from California. I had one listing where three neighboring homes were all bought by people moving in from California within the last 18 months."

Glicken said that while most people relocating to the Nashville area come from California, there are also people moving in from Chicago, New York and Texas.

In 2021, mortgage rates were hovering just under 3% for most of the year and pandemic-fueled remote work was common, driving many people to relocate. While it's somewhat counterintuitive that a higher share of house hunters are relocating to a different metro now than back then—18.8% compared with 15.9%—Redfin economists say it's largely due to the large size of the metros in this analysis.

Redfin uses Combined Statistical Areas (CSAs), which are typically made up of several Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs). The San Jose-San Francisco CSA, for example, is made up of many surrounding MSAs, including Napa Valley, Santa Cruz and several other places. A remote worker who moved from the city of San Francisco to Napa Valley in 2021 wouldn't have been considered a "relocator" because those two places are part of the same CSA. That type of move was common during the pandemic.

Sacramento, Las Vegas, Florida Top List of Most Popular Destinations

Sacramento, CA and Las Vegas were the most popular destinations for relocating house hunters in the fourth quarter.

Next come four Florida metro areas: Cape Coral, North Port, Miami and Orlando. All 10 of the most popular migration destinations are relatively affordable, especially compared to the places people are most commonly leaving. For instance, the typical home in Las Vegas sells for $435,000, while the typical home in Los Angeles costs twice as much. Additionally, most of the most popular destinations have warm, sunny weather.

People Are Leaving Big-City Job Hubs Behind

House hunters are leaving Los Angeles and New York more than any other major metro.

Next come three other major job centers: The Bay Area, Seattle and Chicago. It's typical for expensive coastal cities and employment hubs to top the list of places people are moving away from, as people seek more affordable housing. Homebuyers leaving New York, for instance, often seek out Philadelphia, where buying a home costs less than half the price.

Homebuyers and renters are also moving away from a few places that don't fit into the category of big-city job centers: Charlotte, NC and Austin, TX. Those places both attracted a lot of new residents during the pandemic remote-work era, and now some of those people are moving away as they return to the office.

While the Bay Area is still number three on the list of places house hunters are leaving, outbound migration from San Jose and San Francisco has slowed significantly since it peaked in 2021 and 2022. Return-to-office policies and a rebounding tech job market—particularly in the AI sector—have tethered more workers to the Bay Area, and slowing home-price growth has left fewer homebuyers feeling the urgency to cash out.

Florida Is Still Top State For Relocating House Hunters, Despite Declining Inflow

Zooming out to the state level, Florida was the most popular destination for relocating house hunters in the fourth quarter. Even though migration into several Florida metros is slowing, the Sunshine state still attracts about twice as many Redfin.com home searchers as either South Carolina or Arizona, the second- and third-most popular states, respectively.

To view the full report, including charts, additional state-level data, and a methodology, please visit: https://www.redfin.com/news/migration-q4-2025/

About Redfin

Redfin is a technology-driven real estate company with the country's most-visited real estate brokerage website. As part of Rocket Companies (NYSE:RKT), Redfin is creating an integrated homeownership platform from search to close to make the dream of homeownership more affordable and accessible for everyone. Redfin's clients can see homes first with on-demand tours, easily apply for a home loan with Rocket Mortgage, and save thousands in fees while working with a top local agent.

You can find more information about Redfin and get the latest housing market data and research at https://www.redfin.com/news. For more information about Rocket Companies, visit https://www.rocketcompanies.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260310604647/en/

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Isabelle Novak

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