Study: Raleigh remains a ‘pandemic boom town’ for people looking to relocate

RALEIGH – Nationwide, would-be homebuyers are seeking more affordable housing markets due to surging costs of rents, mortgage interest rates, and other goods and services limiting purchasing power.

And that includes taking a look at Raleigh and the Triangle region, where median home sale prices continue to rise, according to the latest data from the Triangle Multiple Listing Service, TMLS.

The combined statistical area of the Triangle is the 20th most popular metropolitan statistical area in Redfin’s analysis based on net migration figures during the second quarter of 2022, which studied 148 combined statistical areas.

All across the nation, there’s been a record share of potential homebuyers searching for homes outside of the region where they currently reside, according to the latest analysis from Redfin. And while some so-called “pandemic boom towns” are now seeing a rapid cooling down of their housing markets, the Triangle has avoided such turbulence, so far.

Raleigh’s housing market avoids – so far – turbulence hitting other metros

In the second quarter of 2022, 32.6% of website users that searched on Redfin’s digital properties looked to move from one metropolitan area to a different one, up from 32.3% in the first quarter of the year.

And it’s a change from 31.1% in the second quarter of 2021 and from 25.2% in the second quarter of 2019, before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Q2 2022 Migration Chart, national. (Redfin data, Redfin image.)

Who’s looking at Raleigh?

During the second quarter of 2022, 32.1% of those using Redfin’s website to search for housing in Raleigh were looking to move from another metropolitan area.

And, according to Redfin’s data, Raleigh saw a net migration of 2,711 people in the second quarter of 2022.

Further, people are still looking to move to the region, according to Redfin’s data set.

Of the search traffic coming from out of the metropolitan area, 23.2% came from inside the state of North Carolina, with 10.2% from Fayetteville, 5% from Greensboro, 4.9% from Charlotte, 2.6% from Wilmington, and 0.5% from Asheville, according to Redfin’s data.

But for those looking to move to Raleigh from out of state, the most searches of Raleigh’s housing market came from Washington, D.C., New York City, the San Francisco area, Los Angeles, and Boston, according to Redfin data. And those looking from out of the region often are looking at a wider range of possible price points, Redfin data from earlier in the year showed.