A record number of Americans are looking to buy new homes in another state than where they live, according to a report from real estate firm Redfin.
Over a quarter (25.9%) of homebuyers wanted to move to other metros in the US in September, carrying over from August’s record high, where 26% wanted to move out of state.
The good news for homebuyers is that housing prices have come down, with the latest Census Bureau report (pdf) showing that the median sale price of new homes in September was $418,800, down from August’s median (pdf) of $430,300. The average sale price in September was $503,900, below August’s average of $514,000.
“Pricing is down both due to builder incentive use and a shift towards building slightly smaller homes,” according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).
The NAHB found that 32% of builders slashed home prices in October, the largest share of builders offering discounts since December 2022. Meanwhile, 62% of builders in October provided sales incentives of all forms, such as knocking off closing costs to setting up personalized mortgages with their partners. That’s up from 59% in September.
But it’s not all rosy. With the potential for more Federal Reserve rate hikes still on the horizon, homebuyers aren’t rushing to buy up all the homes this year.
“With mortgage rates continuing to rise and homebuilder optimism surveys softening, we expect new sales to soften over the remainder of the year,” said Doug Duncan, the chief economist at Fannie Mae.
More people are moving out of Austin, Texas for the first time
With 30-year mortgage rates soaring above 7%, according to Freddie Mac, homebuyers are trying to find metros where they’d get a bang for their buck.
Many years ago, that place was Austin, Texas. The pandemic and the era of remote work, along with record-low mortgage rates, boosted Austin’s popularity; but housing prices skyrocketed by 75% in mid-2022 compared to before the pandemic.
Now, for the first time on record, Redfin found that homebuyers have stopped moving to the Texas capital. As employers call workers back to the office, Redfin agents in Austin found that people are leaving for that reason as well.
The top 10 metros that homebuyers are moving to
Price and affordability are keys here, and Florida is the place to be despite being a hurricane-prone region. Five out of 10 of the top metros where homebuyers moved to in September were in the sunshine state.
Still, Sacramento, Calif., and Las Vegas are the top two areas homebuyers from San Francisco and Los Angeles, respectively, seek out. The third is Orlando, Fla.
Here are the top 10 metros homebuyers from across the US are flocking to in September:
1. Sacramento, CA
2. Las Vegas, NV
3. Orlando, FL
4. Myrtle Beach, SC
5. North Port-Sarasota, FL
6. Portland, ME
7. Tampa, FL
8. Cape Coral, FL
9. Miami, FL
10. Salisbury, MD