Las Vegas Leads U.S. Relocation Searches as Florida Draws the Most Interstate House Hunters

Share this article!

Las Vegas has reclaimed the top spot among U.S. destinations for house hunters looking to leave their current metro, while Florida is drawing more interstate search interest than any other state by a wide margin.

That is the picture in Redfin’s second-quarter migration analysis, released Thursday. The brokerage’s search data show Las Vegas with a net inflow of 9,581 Redfin.com users in the second quarter, followed by North Port, Florida, at 5,873; Orlando at 5,742; Miami at 5,239; and Sacramento at 5,227.

Nine of the 10 metros with the largest net inflows were in the Sun Belt. Spokane, Washington, was the exception.

Florida’s lead is much larger at the state level

At the state level, Florida recorded a net inflow of 38,922 Redfin.com house hunters. That exceeded the combined net inflow of South Carolina, Arizona and Tennessee, the next three states in Redfin’s ranking. Nevada ranked fifth with a net inflow of 8,918.

The opposite side of the ledger remains dominated by expensive coastal states. California posted a net outflow of 56,548 searchers, nearly twice New York’s 29,838. Illinois, Washington and Massachusetts followed.

Redfin’s data point to affordability as an important part of that movement. The typical Las Vegas home sells for about $447,000, according to the report, compared with $922,000 in Los Angeles, the most common origin for people searching in Las Vegas. New York was the leading origin for people searching in Orlando and Miami, while Chicago led for North Port and Cape Coral.

The pattern does not mean every Sun Belt market is inexpensive or that search activity necessarily becomes a closed sale. It does show where potential buyers are looking when they consider crossing metro or state lines.

Relocation interest is rising even as transactions remain subdued

Nationwide, 18.7% of Redfin.com house hunters searched outside their home metro during the second quarter. That was up from 18.1% a year earlier and was the highest second-quarter share in Redfin records dating to 2021.

That percentage needs context. Redfin cautioned that a larger share of users considering relocation does not necessarily mean more people are actually relocating. Overall homebuying remains sluggish, so a larger percentage can come from a smaller pool of active buyers.

The analysis is based on Redfin.com users who searched for homes outside their home metro. Redfin counts a user as a migrant when that user viewed at least 20 for-sale homes in an origin-destination pair during the relevant month. The measure therefore captures search intent, not completed moves.

Still, the data add another dimension to the geographic split in the housing market. Many Southern and Western markets have rebuilt inventory and given buyers more negotiating leverage, while large coastal job centers remain substantially more expensive. For households with the ability to move—particularly remote or hybrid workers—that gap can turn a change of metro into an affordability strategy.

Las Vegas illustrates the tradeoff. It is drawing heavily from Los Angeles despite being far from the cheapest market in the country. What matters to a relocating buyer is often the price difference between the origin and destination, not whether the destination is inexpensive in absolute terms.

For real estate professionals, the origin-destination pairs also identify where referral relationships and relocation marketing may have the most immediate value. The strongest flows in Redfin’s second-quarter data connect Los Angeles with Las Vegas, New York with multiple Florida metros, San Jose with Sacramento and Seattle with Spokane.

The next test is whether those searches turn into transactions while mortgage rates remain elevated. Relocation can solve part of the price problem, but it does not remove financing costs from the equation.