A U-Haul moving van sits outside a Boston home. iStock photo
According to a new report from Redfin, Boston homeowners are continuing to look elsewhere.
A net 11,743 Massachusetts residents were looking to leave the state in the first quarter of 2026, the brokerage and listings portal’s economists found, based on search patterns on the company’s site. This was fifth in all of the United States according to Redfin.
The metro of Boston was seventh in the nation in outflow of 8,822 residents looking to leave the market.
A Redfin.com user counts as a someone looking to leave their metro area if they viewed at least 20 for-sale homes outside where they were browsing from in a single month.
Miami, Florida, was the most common destination for those looking to leave Boston. Florida overall saw 46,664 Redfin users searching there from out-of-state, according to Redfin.
Across the country, 19.1 percent of U.S. house hunters looked to move from one part of the country to another in the first quarter. That’s up from 18.9 percent in 2025 and the highest share in Redfin’s records dating back to 2021.
“A record portion of Americans are looking to relocate partly because of affordability pressures,” the report from Redfin stated. “Housing costs are near record highs because mortgage rates and sale prices remain stubbornly high, and inflation is pushing up the cost of living for other everyday expenses. That’s motivating people to move from expensive areas to more affordable areas. Orlando, FL, for instance, is the most popular destination for relocating house hunters.”
Home-searchers appear to be following through on the intentions measured by listing portals like Redfin. A January analysis of federal Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics data by the Pioneer Institute found Massachusetts lost 182,000 residents between April 2020 and July 2025.
“These trends are clear: Weak job growth, high costs, and an uncompetitive business climate are pushing people out,” Pioneer Executive Director Jim Stergios said in a statement accompanying that report’s release.
