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Out-of-town buyers are no longer a specific niche market. They are the market.
Those who are old adequate might remember their first pre-2008 investment workshop from old-school experts like Robyn Thompson and Ron LeGrand when they suggested sending postcards to purchasers who lived out of state, and you dutifully made a note, believing, “That’s a great idea.” It was.
Flash forward two decades, and potential out-of-town buyers now make up 62% of online views for homes in the biggest 100 U.S. metros, according to a report from Realtor.com, with 87 of those 100 markets being driven by out-of-market interest. In 2019, 48.6% of online consumers were out-of-market.
What’s driving the move away from conventional employment centers? Affordability and warm weather. Throw in remote work as a facilitator, and more locals are taking the opportunity to live a more unwinded life far from adverse weather and without extending their financial resources. This is also borne out in U.S. News and World Report‘s continuous “Moving Trends,” which shows the allure of affordable cities in the South and Midwest.
Realtor.com keeps in mind that Sunbelt enclaves such as Cape Coral-Fort Myers and Lakeland-Winter Haven in Florida and Durham-Chapel Hill in North Carolina drew in around 80% of their listing traffic from out-of-town buyers in late 2025, a figure even higher than throughout the pandemic, with interest originating from prospective owner-occupants, second-home buyers, and financiers.
“We have actually seen a fundamental change in where Americans who are shopping for a home are wanting to live,” stated Danielle Hale, primary economist at Realtor.com, when releasing the report. “As the ‘lock-in effect’ keeps some owners from selling, those who are moving are significantly untethered to the marketplace they’re currently in.”
How Affordability Is Squeezing Purchasers
According to a recent Investopedia analysis citing Oxford Economics, a family needed to earn $110,000 in the third quarter of 2025 to purchase a single-family home as well as pay real estate tax and home insurance coverage expenses– nearly double the amount needed at the exact same time five years earlier. Despite house prices slowing rather than collapsing due to tight supply, a starter home is still out of reach for numerous.
It’s not simply sunnier climates that purchasers and brand-new residents are seeking to. Midwest and Northeast markets that typically sourced their purchasers in your area now average about 56% and 62% out-of-town listing views, respectively, with smaller sized and mid-sized markets being the target for migration.
Migration and Rental Demand: The Pleased Couple
Migration and rental demand typically work together because when moving to a new city, possible homeowners typically test-drive it initially by leasing. When occupants are moving from larger cities to smaller sized cities such as Richmond, Virginia, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the end result, according to Yahoo! Finance’s analysis of Realtor.com data, is a lower job rate and higher rental need.
Renters showing up from costly cities are assisting to bid up rates in what have actually been considered budget?friendly cities, according to Realtor.com analysts.
Moving Company Reports Back Property Data
Transportation companies echo the same message, adding their own subtleties.
United Van Lines’ 2025 National Movers Study shows incoming migration led by Oregon, West Virginia, and South Carolina. Its leading location cities include Eugene-Springfield, Oregon; Wilmington, North Carolina; and Dover, Delaware, with a concentrate on smaller sized cities and towns.
Michael A. Stoll, economic expert and teacher in the Department of Public Law at the University of California, Los Angeles, said in the United Van Lines report:
“For the majority of Americans, interstate moving is no longer a direct estimation; it’s a complicated choice balancing several completing aspects. It is intriguing to see that in general, population movement continues from North/Midwest areas to Southern states, and once again, leading inbound places are dominated by smaller sized- to medium-sized metro locations. This shows a legacy of COVID-era preferences for lower-density living, combined with the reality that real estate expenses continue to drive individuals toward more inexpensive regions.”
Similarly, Allied Van Lines’ U.S. Migration Report highlights the Carolinas, Tennessee, New York State, and Florida as its clients’ top locations. The report states that North Carolina has “burst on the scene as a hot location,” with former resort towns reimagined as full-time hubs for remote employees, while tech and financing employees are drawn to Charlotte.
7 Is the Magic Number
Metros with vacancy rates above 7% offer tenants a tactical advantage, according to a Realtor.com report, with property managers often excited to provide rewards, such as rental concessions, to fill units.
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In smaller sized cities where renters have actually been arriving en masse, that advantage slides back to landlords. U.S. News and World Report‘s extensive The Fastest-Growing Places in the U.S. is an excellent buddy guide for investors trying to find safe houses to purchase rental properties. It’s clustered with smaller sized Southern cities in Florida, South Carolina, and Texas, with some Western states like California and Arizona attracting more upscale movers.
Older Movers Are Significantly Selecting to Lease Over Buy
Wondering whether all the migration translates into real occupants? It’s a legitimate question, specifically when the demographics skew towards older occupants who have former homes, equity, retirement funds, and pensions to probably see them through their later years. Would not they just want to purchase a location of their own? Apparently not.
According to a study by Point2Homes, a property listing website for American Rental Houses, citing U.S. Census data, seniors are among the fastest-growing rental demographics. In a 10-year duration, the senior tenant population increased by 30%, including 2.4 million individuals.
But it’s not just elders who are picking to rent rather than own. The 55-64 age group is up by 500,000. Financial resources play a huge part, as a Harris Survey cited in the report shows, with older locals less going to be burdened home loans, taxes, insurance coverage, repair work, and potentially HOA costs, preferring the ease of movement that leasing deals.
Not remarkably, Florida is a prime destination, as the Realtor.com report verifies, with Cape Coral-Fort Myers amongst the top locations. Likewise, for smaller sized financiers, older renters are not selecting gleaming brand-new apartment buildings and facilities however instead prefer single-family rentals, with numbers increasing by more than 25% compared to a years back among the 65+ age group.
Final Ideas
Taking a look at these various reports together helps decide of where to invest much easier. The good news is that individuals are transferring to more budget-friendly markets and prefer smaller single-family homes, especially amongst older tenants, which plays into the hands of BRRRR investors and buy-and-hold property managers.
For flippers, updating homes in smaller sized markets suggests less capital at danger and faster turnover, assisting feed need from investors and property buyers alike.