We all know the housing market and general homebuying has been difficult these past few years. With the cost of everything rising, that doesn’t exclude homes. Apartments, condos, trailers, land, and the modern home are all well-priced above most’s comfort zone. It is not stopping people from at least trying though. Some have raked up debt, and others have made shady loan agreements or borrowed with extremely high-interest rates. This one though is a little less complicated. People are simply moving to where it is more affordable.
Fox Business reported last month that a third of Redfin users considered moving to another metro in July and August, according to the company’s migration report. Apparently, a majority of those people were folks who lived near the ocean and in expensive coastal cities. My guess is Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City.
Fox even stated that yes, the bay area of San Francisco had the most people leave at nearly 45,000. Back in 2019, MarketWatch reported that $100,000 in San Francisco is considered barely getting by. Most of those people have roommates or still live with family – the last thing they would be considering is buying a home in the bay. It is simply too expensive, so the idea of people thinking about or even willing to pack up their lives and move to completely different places just to buy a home doesn’t surprise me.
Fox continues on stating that Miami is the hot ticket item right now with about 8,000 Redfin users moving there due to affordability. Everyone knows Miami as a party spot in the sunshine state, but my initial thought is that can’t be right. Miami has to be egregiously expensive right?
Well though it is a popular destination, it is still in Florida, which is known to be a much less expensive state to live in overall. Other states along the “sun belt” are also being considered like Texas, Nevada, and Arizona.
Though all these states are being considered, they are also seeing that within these states, they have the most contracts fall through, meaning people are making offers and moving forward just to backtrack and pull out of the deal. There is so much demand in these states that the prices of homes are starting to go through the roof. People want to leave their home state to move somewhere more affordable. Yet if the home prices are the same as where they are leaving, what’s the point?
I can say from experience living here in Austin, Texas. we have a new flux of newcomers every day. At least it feels that way – and though I don’t mind being a New England native – more of the native Texans aren’t too happy with the flood of people from the coasts. The same may be said for those in other sunbelt states.
As long as prices for homes continue to rise, that won’t to much matter though.
People migrate. You could almost say it’s in our nature to be in a place that feels safe and secure. Living in a city or state that is pricing you out and doesn’t respect the hard-earned money you make, well that’s bound to make people migrate after all.
I don’t think we will see a change in potential homeowner behavior unless the home-buying market crashes.
