Austin Is Attracting Twice As Many Out-of-Town Homebuyers As Last Year

Nationally, a record 29.4% of Redfin.com users looked to move to another metro in October and November

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Dec 21, 2020, 08:00 ET

SEATTLE, Dec. 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- (NASDAQ: RDFN) — 29.4% of Redfin.com users nationwide looked to move to another metro area in October and November, up from 25.4% a year before, according to a new report from Redfin (www.redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage. This marks the highest share of users looking to move to a new metro since Redfin started tracking migration in the beginning of 2017.

As the coronavirus pandemic and the shift toward remote work continues across the country, more people than ever are looking to make long-distance moves, often from expensive coastal regions to affordable inland areas where they can find more space for less money.

More people are moving to Sacramento, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Austin and Atlanta than last year, partly because of remote work

Sacramento, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Austin and Atlanta were the most popular destinations for Redfin.com users looking to move to a different metro in October and November, meaning those places had bigger net inflows than any other major metro in the U.S. A net inflow means more people looked to move in that leave, while a net outflow means more people looked to leave than move in.

While those places are typically the most popular destinations, largely due to their affordability and relatively warm weather, the number of out-of-towners searching for homes in all five metros has skyrocketed since last year.

That's especially true in Austin. In October and November, net inflow to the Austin metro area was double the same time last year.

"There has been a massive influx of buyers coming to Austin this year, mostly people who work in tech or other industries that allow them to work remotely," said local Redfin agent Andrew Vallejo. "About 80% of my buyers are from the East Coast or the West Coast, specifically from the Bay Area. The number of people moving in from California picked up even more after the election, and a lot of people have newfound confidence in the Austin housing market because of the upcoming Tesla factory."

"I've also noticed a lot of people come to Austin, rent a house for a couple months, then fall in love with the walkability and charm of the city and move here permanently," Vallejo said. "The number of out-of-towners makes the market difficult for locals, especially if they don't work in tech. A lot of local homebuyers have to look in the far-flung suburbs to find a home, or they have to turn to family members for cash to make their offers more competitive."

The Bay Area is the top origin for people moving to Austin from out of town. The number of people relocating from Northern California to Austin is likely to increase in the near future as companies like Oracle and Hewlett Packard move from Silicon Valley to the Texas capitol.

Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle and New York are the next most popular origins for people relocating to Austin.

Meanwhile, there has been a nearly 70% uptick in net inflow of people looking to relocate to Sacramento and Las Vegas. In Phoenix and Atlanta, the increase from last year is nearly 50%.

The share of Redfin.com users searching for homes from outside the metro has increased in all of those metros except Atlanta. The increase is particularly significant in Austin, where more than 38% of all home searches were from users outside the metro in October and November, up from 30.9% a year before.

The Bay Area is the top origin for Redfin.com users moving to Sacramento and Austin, Los Angeles is the top origin for people moving to Las Vegas and Phoenix, and New York is the top origin for people moving to Atlanta.

Table: Top 10 Metros by Net Inflow of Users and Their Top Origins
Rank	Metro^*	Net Inflow^†	Net Inflow Last Year	Portion of Searches from Users Outside the Metro	Portion of Searches from Users Outside the Metro Last Year	Top Origin	Top Out-of- State Origin
1	Sacramento, CA	8,202	4,985	49.4%	43.9%	San Francisco, CA	Reno, NV
2	Las Vegas, NV	7,713	4,583	52.1%	46.4%	Los Angeles, CA	Los Angeles, CA
3	Phoenix, AZ	7,667	5,129	36.2%	33.4%	Los Angeles, CA	Los Angeles, CA
4	Austin, TX	7,053	3,102	38.4%	30.9%	San Francisco, CA	San Francisco, CA
5	Atlanta, GA	6,442	4,534	26.6%	27.1%	New York, NY	New York, NY
6	Dallas, TX	6,063	2,603	31.5%	25.1%	Los Angeles, CA	Los Angeles, CA
7	Nashville, TN	4,512	2,291	40.6%	33.9%	New York, NY	New York, NY
8	Tampa, FL	4,105	2,284	56.4%	52.9%	Orlando, FL	New York, NY
9	Miami, FL	3,193	1,584	26.4%	24.5%	New York, NY	New York, NY
10	Cape Coral, FL	3,167	1,407	75.3%	74.5%	Chicago, IL	Chicago, IL
*Combined statistical areas with at least 500 users in October and November 2020 †Negative values indicate a net outflow; among the one million users sampled for this analysis only

Nearly twice as many Redfin.com users are leaving Washington, D.C. as last year

New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and Chicago top the list of places Redfin.com users were looking to leave in October and November, as they did in the second and third quarters of this year.

There has been a 95% uptick in the net outflow of people looking to leave Washington, D.C. since October and November of last year.

Meanwhile, there has been an 82% increase in the number of people looking to leave Chicago. In Los Angeles, the uptick was 45%, and in New York and San Francisco it was more than 30%.

All five of those metros also saw an increase in the share of local Redfin.com users searching for homes in a different metro area.

Table: Top 10 Metros by Net Outflow of Users and Their Top Destinations
Rank	Metro^*	Net Outflow^†	Net Outflow Last Year	Portion of Local Users Searching Elsewhere	Portion of Local Users Searching Elsewhere Last Year	Top Destination	Top Out-of- State Destination
1	New York, NY	37,305	24,402	35.2%	37.1%	Boston, MA	Boston, MA
2	San Francisco, CA	33,520	25,356	24.0%	23.0%	Sacramento, CA	Seattle, WA
3	Los Angeles, CA	20,821	14,283	18.0%	16.5%	San Diego, CA	Las Vegas, NV
4	Washington, DC	10,228	5,246	13.0%	10.8%	Salisbury, MD	Salisbury, MD
5	Chicago, IL	5,414	2,976	12.3%	10.2%	South Bend, IN	South Bend, IN
6	Denver, CO	4,408	2,264	27.7%	23.1%	Seattle, WA	Seattle, WA
7	Seattle, WA	2,495	-2,907	14.1%	11.2%	Los Angeles, CA	Los Angeles, CA
8	Milwaukee, WI	2,395	796	42.0%	38.4%	Chicago, IL	Chicago, IL
9	San Diego, CA	2,256	-2,114	25.7%	18.7%	Los Angeles, CA	Phoenix, AZ
10	Indianapolis, IN	1,416	354	39.5%	30.6%	Chicago, IL	Chicago, IL
*Combined statistical areas with at least 500 users in October and November 2020 †Among the one million users sampled for this analysis only

To read the full report, please visit: https://www.redfin.com/news/october-november-2020-housing-migration-trends.

About Redfin
Redfin (www.redfin.com) is a technology-powered residential real estate company, redefining real estate in the consumer's favor in a commission-driven industry. We do this by integrating every step of the home buying and selling process and pairing our own agents with our own technology, creating a service that is faster, better and costs less. We offer brokerage, iBuying, mortgage, and title services, and we also run the country's #1 real estate brokerage search site, offering a host of online tools to consumers, including the Redfin Estimate. We represent people buying and selling homes in over 90 markets in the United States and Canada. Since our launch in 2006, we have saved our customers over $800 million and we've helped them buy or sell more than 235,000 homes worth more than $115 billion.

For more information or to contact a local Redfin real estate agent, visit www.redfin.com. To learn about housing market trends and download data, visit the Redfin Data Center. To be added to Redfin's press release distribution list, email [email protected]. To view Redfin's press center, click here.

SOURCE Redfin