NOTE: The map has been updated in July with June 2020 search volumes but the language below reflects analyses from January – May 2020 only.
Zumper’s first ever migration report uses search data to analyze patterns and trends across the U.S. to see where renters are most interested in moving to and where renters are most interested in leaving.
This interactive map features filters for cities, migration direction, and month. The blue density bubbles represent search volumes for each city. Users can refine their search based on any, or a combination of, these filters.
In terms of migration direction, these are the definitions of inbound and outbound searches:
Outbound searches: Where people located in the filtered city are looking to move
Inbound searches: Where are people looking to move to the filtered city
This report covers trends encompassing data from January 2020 – May 2020.
Which Cities are People Interested in Moving to?
While most searches tend to happen within a city’s metro area, we looked at the cities with the most inbound searches coming from out-of-metro* to show which areas had the most interest from renters around the nation.
With more than 40% of inbound searches coming from outside of their respective metro areas, Charlotte, Indianapolis, and San Antonio were the top cities renters were interested in moving to so far this year. Raleigh renters sent the most out-of-metro searches to Charlotte, Chicago renters to Indianapolis, and Austin residents to San Antonio.
The rest of this top 20 list had 3 additional Texan cities and 3 California cities so it seems those two states have been attracting the most interest from out-of-metro renters overall.
Which Cities are People Searching to Move Out of?
We looked at the cities with the most outbound searches that were out-of-metro* to find the areas that people were most interested in leaving so far this year.
With over 70% of their total outbound searches going elsewhere in the U.S., Akron, Virginia Beach, and Oklahoma City were the top cities where residents were interested in moving out of. The top out-of-metro area Akron renters were looking to move was the Detroit metro, while Virginia Beach residents were looking for new homes in Birmingham, and Oklahoma City renters were most interested in the Dallas Fort Worth area.
California Trends
Southern California cities are interested in moving to Phoenix and Las Vegas & Vice Versa
Looking at both inbound and outbound searches for the Southern California cities on the map, Phoenix and Las Vegas were the top recurring out-of-state cities. There is a mutual migration relationship between these areas and perhaps since Southern California, Phoenix, and Las Vegas all tend to be warm most of the year, renters in those cities who were itching to move are looking for similarly tempered environments.
Bay area cities mostly want to stay in state with 2 exceptions
Meanwhile, for our Bay Area cities, while most inbound and outbound searches were within California, the 2 exceptions were the Chicago and New York City metro areas. It seems if Bay Area residents were to move out of California, they would be the most interested in living in or around other large, metropolitan areas.
Reno ties southern and northern California together
The most amount of out-of-metro inbound searches to Reno came from cities in both southern and northern California, in particular Sacramento, San Francisco, and Los Angeles metros. The interest in moving to Reno was a common migration thread that tied this state together.
Floridians don’t want to leave
All 7 Florida cities had top inbound searches coming from other Florida metros and nearly all outbound searches, with the exception of Orlando where Atlanta made it as a top outbound city, were directed to other Florida metros as well. Floridians love their state and their searches really reflected that.
Remote places: Alaska & Hawaii
While most outbound searches for Anchorage residents were within the state, if these renters were to move to the mainland they were most interested in Seattle. Meanwhile, Portland was the top out-of-state city searching to move to Anchorage, with 18% of inbound searches to Anchorage coming from Portland residents.
The top out-of-state city that Honolulu residents were sending outbound searches to was Las Vegas. However, that was not the same for inbound searches as Los Angeles was the top out-of-state city where renters were searching to move to Hawaii.
A wide variety of out-of-state searches to and from Texas
Of the dozen Texas cities covered in this migration report, some top recurring out-of-state cities Texans looking to move to were Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Albuquerque.
Meanwhile renters in Chicago, Oklahoma City, and Denver were the top out-of-state cities looking to move to Texas.
The majority of Midwest cities migrate among themselves
Our Midwest cities had a large variety of metros for inbound and outbound searches but the underlying theme was that the majority of the out-of-state searches were to and from other Midwest cities. For example, the top out-of-state city that Chicago residents were interested in moving to was Indianapolis, with 6% of outbound searches directed there. Meanwhile, the top out-of-state cities looking to move to Chicago were St. Louis and Kansas City.
However, there was notable exception with Cleveland, as residents in this Ohio city had Tampa and Orlando make up 8% of outbound searches. It seems Cleveland renters may be interested in some warmer weather.
About
Though this report pulls out highlights in certain cities and states throughout the U.S., it does not reflect every single data point that the map covers. For anyone interested in learning trends and insights for a specific city, the filters will be able to provide the best distinct search data.
Methodology
The results for this migration report were gathered by analyzing data about where users were located when they used Zumper.com and which cities they sent messages to between January 1, 2020 through April 30, 2020. Location was defined by IP addresses from which the users were searching. Results were collected on both a city and metro level. The drop down search bar consists of the top 100 most populated U.S. cities.
*Inbound and outbound searches for each city had a minimum threshold of searches required to make it onto the top 20 lists to ensure that the cities represented were statistically significant. Any city that had less than the required amount was filtered out of the top 20 lists.
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