Redfin users in San Francisco and Portland looking to relocate have their eyes on Seattle, the company reported this week.
Redfin calculated the top metro areas that homebuyers are looking to leave and the most popular destination from each of those metro areas.
The findings are based on 2 million Redfin.com home searches in 111 metro areas in January. The company used data only from those who made 10 or more home searches with at least 80% of those searches in one metro area, indicating a serious intent to relocate.
Redfin found that nearly one-third of users are looking to relocate, the most since it started tracking data in 2017.
Large cities with expensive housing ranked highest on what Redfin calls its “net outflow” calculations — homebuyers looking to leave minus homebuyers looking to move in.
San Francisco topped the list, followed by Los Angeles, New York City, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Boston, Chicago, Denver, Portland and Minneapolis.
The most common destination city for people in Portland was Seattle. The most popular destination for people in San Francisco was Sacramento, and the most popular out-of-state destination was Seattle.
Seattle Redfin users looking to relocate targeted Phoenix more than any other metro area.
On the flip side, cities with the highest “net inflow” tended to be in warmer climates with housing that, while not cheap, is less expensive than the priciest cities in the U.S.
Miami, Phoenix, Tampa, Sacramento and Las Vegas led that list.