After the pandemic began in March 2020, there was an increase in the number of home shoppers looking to move to a new area. Remote work, affordability conditions, and a desire for more space all contributed to buyers’ desire to move further from home. But what about now? It’s been three years. Are Americans still looking to move away? According to the National Association of Realtors’ consumer website, they are. In fact, the website’s Q2 Cross-Market Demand Report shows 60 percent of listing views from the top 100 metros went to homes located outside the shopper’s current metro area. That’s up almost 1 percent from the first quarter and 4.1 percent year-over-year. Jiayi Xu, an economist for the site, says affordability is the main motivator pushing today’s buyers to expand their house hunt. “Housing affordability isn’t likely to improve anytime soon, so it’s not surprising to see that Americans are on the move and increasingly searching for homes in more affordable areas of the country where they can stretch their housing dollars further,” Xu said. “Sellers are much more likely to see interest from out-of-towners than in years past, and from where that interest is coming might be the most surprising.” (source)
