The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a migration among the American population. Many people who live in expensive coastal cities like New York and San Francisco are moving to cities with lower costs of living and a perceived better quality of life. The ability to buy a new house and relocate has two drivers. Mortgage rates are near historic lows, which makes houses more affordable, and the ability to work from home permanently has broadened the options for where people can live.
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Not all the desirable destinations are in America. Among the conclusions in the Point2homes study “The Hottest Destinations: Top 30 Most Popular Home Buying Locations in the Americas” is this:
In a year unlike any other, many Americans jumped at the opportunity to buy a second home abroad. To escape the pandemic — and their confining primary residences — those who had the means to hunt for homes in sunnier, more exotic places did just that.
The methodology for the study was a review of keyword searches “related to real estate” and the names of all the nations in the Americas. Researchers used Ahrefs tools to determine the average searches per month over the past 12 months.
Not unexpectedly, the two countries that are the most likely home-buying destinations are those directly adjacent to the United States geographically. Mexico ranked first with 82,850 searches over the measured period. Canada ranked second with 64,440. The presence of Mexico at the top of the list may not last. Nationwide violence that has taken the lives of tens of thousands of people has spread to resorts and even to cities and towns that are destinations of U.S. residential buyers.
Click here to see which are America’s 50 best cities to live in.
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