Are Americans Really Fleeing Big Cities? Not So Much

By Kerry Smith

In 2019, an average 1.91% city dwellers moved to smaller towns. In 2020, it rose slightly to 2.18% – but in some Fla. metros (Tampa, Orlando), it was less than 1%.

ORLANDO, Fla. – Home buying is heating up in the suburbs, but that doesn’t mean relocators have abandoned major cities.

A new study from LendingTree concludes that homeowners aren’t actually leaving cities in significant numbers. To create a comparison, researchers analyzed the migration patterns of the nation’s 50 largest cities and compared them with levels from 2019.

Overall, the pandemic may have influenced some people to get out of town. A slightly larger percentage of homeowners moved from big cities to smaller towns in 2020 than in 2019, but the share of those relocating has remained largely the same over the past two years.

In 2019, an average 1.91% of homeowners who lived in one of the nation’s 50 largest cities moved to a smaller town. In 2020, that share grew to 2.18%.

However, the majority of city movers either moved elsewhere within that city or they moved to a different city altogether rather than a smaller town. Broken out, an average 84% of homeowners stayed in the same city when they moved compared to nearly 16% who left for another city.

In some cities, few residents moved out of town. While Philadelphia had the lowest percentage of people choosing to move out the city (0.83%), Tampa ranked 49th with 0.94% and Orlando came in at No. 48 with 0.96%.

In comparison, Cleveland topped the list with 4.85% of city residents moving to a smaller town, followed by Minneapolis with 4.28% and Nashville with 3.64%.

The highest-ranking Florida city for residents moving out of town was Jacksonville. It ranked 19th and saw a city-to-suburb relocation rate of 2.47%, according to the study. Miami ranked 36th with a 1.49% rate.

© 2020 Florida Realtors® Reprinted with Permission

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