03:37 PM EDT, 06/29/2026 (MT Newswires) -- A record-high share of house hunters in the US looked to relocate to a different metro area in the first quarter largely due to affordability headwinds, a survey by Redfin showed Monday.

In the three-month period, 19.1% of prospective buyers searched for properties outside their home metro area, the highest percentage in records dating back to 2021 and up from 18.9% a year earlier, according to the online real estate brokerage.

"A record portion of Americans are looking to relocate partly because of affordability pressures," Redfin said. "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."

The brokerage identifies potential migrants as users who search for homes outside their current metro area. A Redfin user must view 20 or more for-sale or for-rent homes in a destination metro during a one-month period to be counted as looking to relocate there, according to the report.

Despite the record share, overall homebuying activity is "sluggish," with the total number of migrants likely lower than it was in 2021 or 2022, Redfin said.

Orlando was the most popular destination for relocating for house hunters in the first quarter, followed by North Port, Miami, and Cape Coral, with all of them being in Florida. At the same time, major job hubs like New York, Seattle, and Los Angeles saw the highest numbers of residents looking to leave, according to the report.

Ongoing remote work flexibility allows Americans to relocate for affordability, and a concurrent wave of "boomerang migration" is reversing pandemic-era trends, causing former hotspots like Charlotte, North Carolina, and Austin, Texas, to see net population losses, the report showed.

Last week, another Redfin survey showed that most US residents back federal policies that would help lower housing costs, largely in line with the broad bipartisan support behind an affordable housing bill that was recently passed by Congress.