Bottom line better for those who moved to state during pandemic, survey says

Phoenix and its suburbs like Tempe (shown) were the most popular destinations for Redfin.com users looking to move to a different area. Those who moved during the pandemic cite affordability as a top driver.

All those folks moving to Arizona have discovered something we’ve known all along - the state is awesome. And more affordable that many other East and West Coast cities.

In fact, 78 percent of surveyed Redfin.com users who moved to a different metro area during the pandemic through March 2021, including Phoenix, have the same or more disposable income after their move. Lower housing costs being the most significant driver. Sixty-eight percent of respondents said they have the same or lower housing costs.

And as of April 2021, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Austin and Atlanta were the most popular destinations for Redfin.com users looking to move to a different area. That’s based on net inflow, which is a measure of how many more Redfin.com home searchers looked to move into a metro than leave, out of a sample of 2 million users.

Relatively affordable inland metros tend to be the most popular destinations for Redfin.com users searching for homes in a different part of the country, as home searchers leave expensive coastal cities like Los Angeles and New York in favor of places with more affordable, more spacious homes.

That’s particularly true in the pandemic era, with all 10 of the most popular destinations seeing a bigger net inflow of out-of-towners than this time last year. And in all 10 of those places, the portion of Redfin.com searches from users outside the metro area has increased since last year.