South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Many Americans moved to cheaper housing in 2020
LOS ANGELES — Many Americans who moved last year relocated to areas where homes were bigger and less expensive.
On average, people who moved to a different city in 2020 ended up in a ZIP code where average home values were nearly $27,000 lower than in their previous ZIP code, according to Zillow.
People who relocated last year also moved to ZIP codes where the average home sold was 33 square feet bigger than their previous home, the real estate information company said.
Zillow based its findings on an analysis of data from tens of thousands of moves nationwide handled by relocation company North American Van Lines.
The data suggests many Americans used the pandemic, and the broader acceptance of working remotely, as an opportunity to flee higher-cost metropolitan areas.
Home prices have been steadily rising over the past decade, but 2020 was the first year since at least 2016 where people, on average, weren’t moving into areas with higher housing costs than they faced in their previous location, Zillow found.
“What that suggests to me is more movement away from the more expensive housing markets in the country,” said Jeff Tucker, a senior economist at Zillow.
A survey by Redfin of people who moved to a different metropolitan area in the 12 months since March 2020 found similar trends. About two-thirds of respondents now have the same or lower housing costs, and nearly as many said their new home is the same size or bigger. The survey was made up of 500 people.
Many Americans continued moving to more affordable and less densely populated areas in the first three months of this year, according to some 300,000 moves handled by relocation tech company Updater.
The company found that pricey areas like New York, Los Angeles and Boston, or Midwestern cities like Cleveland and Indianapolis, continued to lose residents in favor of largely Southern and Western citiessuchasPhoenix,Dallas,Nashville, Tennessee, and Tampa, Florida.