More People Are Searching for Homes Outside of Their Home Cities

Abstract

During the first quarter of 2020, 26 percent of potential buyers on the platform were searching in another metropolitan area. After leveling off a bit, the upward arc of long-distance searches rebounded, reaching a new high in the second quarter of 2022, when 32.5 percent of Redfin searches were from out-of-town buyers. Of the more than 100 metropolitan areas covered in Redfin's study, Cape Coral, Fla., had the highest percentage of buyers searching from out of town, with the greatest number of them originating in Chicago. The list of cities with the greatest outflow of residents was dominated by expensive locales, starting with San Francisco and followed by Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C. To complete the analysis, Redfin examined searches by about two million users in the second quarter of 2022. To focus in on serious buyers, the study was limited to users who viewed at least 10 homes in a city other than their own, and those searches must have equaled at least 80 percent of the user's total searches. Outbound searches from each city were subtracted from inbound searches to quantify outflow. Going Elsewhere A study of home searches by Redfin users in the second quarter of this year shows the cities that have the greatest share of serious buyers from other metropolitan areas.