Which Cities Are People Leaving — and Where Are They Going?

Where are people thinking of moving to and from? An analysis of searches on real estate sites is the easiest way to find out.

So that’s what Redfin did. The company recently examined searches of homes for sale by more than a million Redfin users in 90 metropolitan areas between July and September of 2018, and compared them with searches from the year before.

One thing was immediately apparent: More people are thinking about moving to a new city. Some 25 percent of those looking at homes for sale were searching outside their current metropolitan areas — up from 22 percent during the same period in 2017.

The general trend was away from pricier East and West Coast markets and toward more affordable inland areas. The top 10 most-searched destinations had an average home price of $150,000 less than the top 10 areas people were contemplating leaving.