- Home prices in Texas and Florida have increased 30% and 42% since 2019, according to Realtor.com.
- Texans are increasingly looking to the Midwest for affordability, the real-estate site found.
As people across the US relocate to Florida and Texas, locals are feeling squeezed — and searching elsewhere for affordable homes.
The typical cost of a home in Texas has spiked 30% since 2019, according to Realtor.com, and 42% in Florida during the same time period.
These residents are increasingly searching on Realtor.com for homes outside of their state, suggesting they're willing to chase affordability across the country.
For Texans, "the Midwest has emerged as popular recently because it is just by and large the most affordable region," Hannah Jones, Realtor.com's economic research analyst, told Insider. "We're seeing this trend of buyers looking for affordability really explode."
Texas has long been the go-to migration spot for Americans seeking reasonably priced housing and a low cost of living. But as 884,000 people moved to the state between April 2020 and July 2022, according to Census data, the cost of housing soared.
Many of these newcomers were out-of-staters who could afford to pay more for houses, pushing up prices for everyone, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Using the number of listings viewed within-state versus in other states, Realtor.com found that Texans are looking at properties for sale within their own state less than this time last year.
Wisconsin and Minnesota experienced the largest uptick in search volume from Texas year-over-year last quarter, Realtor.com data shows. Tennessee, Colorado, and Missouri followed.
Floridians are priced out too, and looking elsewhere
Meanwhile, Floridians are eyeing homes nearby.
According to Realtor.com, searches for properties within Florida are down, while searches from Florida for properties in North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, and Alabama are up.
Compass real-estate agent Holly Meyer Lucas, who's based in South Florida, said she has seen dozens of middle-class, native Floridians sell their homes to newcomers and move out-of-state since 2018, when tax reforms drove many high earners to the no-income-tax state. Now, they can't afford to get back in.
"What's happening is if they want to come back to our area, their $800 a month mortgage is not an option anymore," she said. "They have to pay nearly $4,000 a month to rent the same type of home."
Driven by affordability, people are relocating where they can afford.
"They're going to where things are cheap, and they don't have to wait on a daycare list," Meyer Lucas said. "You can say all day long that they're moving because of the southern lifestyle. It's not that, it's the cost of living."