HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS
Interest in moving to Austin has waned and more people are turning to the 'burbs, new report finds
Fewer people are interested in living in Austin proper and are more focused on living in Leander.
Despite being one of the fastest-growing metro areas in the nation, interest in relocating to Austin is becoming less focused on the city, and more on the suburbs.
A new study by moving experts moveBuddha took a look at data from Austin’s metropolitan statistical area (MSA) from 2020 to 2022. Their analysts determined trends for when and where new residents are moving, as well as which city they’re coming from.
In a nutshell, most people moving out of Austin were moving out of the following areas: North Loop and Hyde Park (78751), south of Dessau in between I-35 and 290 (78754), Tarrytown and Old West Austin bordering the river on each side of Mopac (78703), the area south of Mopac and 183 holding Crestview, Allandale, Wooten and North Shoal Creek (78757), and Jollyville (78729).
The zip code that had the most “positive” search volume in 2022 was downtown Austin’s 78701. But moveBuddha doesn’t attribute that as the top destination of where people are moving, but as the default zip code that travelers and tourists search for.
Leander is the true winner for growth in the Austin area, according to moveBuddha and the U.S. Census Bureau. It was declared the fastest-growing city in all of America between 2018 and 2019. The increasing popularity of CapMetro’s rail line that leads into the heart of downtown Austin is likely a major factor into why Leander locals enjoy embracing the suburban life.
When looking at the data of where newcomers are moving from, it’s certainly not a surprise that Californians really do love our city as much as we do. The study found that for every 100 Austinites that thought about moving to San Francisco in 2020, a staggering 1,213 residents from San Francisco were considering making the opposite move. A similar ratio was discovered for residents in Silicon Valley’s San Jose.
The top five U.S. cities with residents that are moving to Austin are:
- San Jose, California
- San Francisco, California
- Chicago, Illinois
- Nashville, Tennessee
- Houston, Texas
Even with the influx of transplants, waning interest in Austin since 2020 was not exclusive to just the Golden State. Residents in Atlanta, New York City, Brooklyn, and Washington D.C. were extremely attracted to the idea of moving to Austin in 2020, but as of 2022 no longer share that desire.
On the other hand, plenty of Austin residents are leaving the state for a city with similar progressive values. According to the report, Denver is where Austinites see the most interest in moving within recent years. Access to outdoor recreation, lots of local music, and enough “weird” vibes are the big draws for the Colorado city.
Most of the concerns with residents leaving the city have to do with cost of living increases, such as rising rent and housing affordability.
The top five destinations for Austinites moving out of the city are:
- Denver, Colorado
- New York City, New York
- Portland, Oregon
- Washington, D.C.
- Raleigh, North Carolina
The full report and its methodology can be found on movebuddha.com.
