Nearly Half of Migrants to Major Metros Experience Rent Increases

Most renters moving to a major metro are seeing increased housing costs. A new study from Yardi’s Storage Café analyzed the increased costs for new renters in major metros and found that 48.8% of new entrants into major metros experience an increase in housing costs. On the other hand, 21.3% of new entrants experience a decline in housing costs.

“Almost 50% of the movers to the top metros declared that they experienced an increase in housing costs,” Maria Gatea of Yardi Storage Café, tells GlobeSt.com. “However, that might not be that surprising, as 32% of the people moving wanted larger or better-quality homes or more desirable neighborhoods,” . Naturally, this translates into increased housing costs. It’s also worth noting that, in addition, almost 15% of the movers declared they relocated in order to form their own household, which usually implies getting a larger home.”

The migration patterns are similar across metros. Most movers are migrating from nearby markets, rather than a significant move. “People moving to the top metros tend to come from another nearby metro area. For example, the Los Angeles metro area saw almost 45,000 newcomers from the adjacent Riverside-San Bernardino metro area, while the San Francisco metro area received almost 29,000 new residents from Metro San Jose,” says Gatea. “The Houston and Dallas metro areas are each other’s main source of new residents, without a clear winner in terms of net migration, as the number of people moving between the two is balanced, at about 16,000 in each direction.” However, for Atlanta, Miami and Chicago, most new arrivals came from New York City, breaking with the trend.