America’s Cheapest Cities Where Everyone Wants to Live Right Now

Grand Rapids, Michigan, is the only Midwestern city to rank among the cheapest cities where Americans are flocking to. Of all those who looked for a home in the Grand Rapids metro area in 2020, slightly more than half, or 51.5%, were from outside the area. Of these potential movers, nearly one-third were from the Detroit metro area as well as other Midwestern cities like Chicago.

Those who look to move to Grand Rapids may be attracted by the area’s relatively low cost of living which can help stretch incomes. The cost of living is 7.8% lower than the nationwide average, yet the median household income is nearly the same as the U.S. median of $65,712.

The Virginia Beach metropolitan area around the Virginia-North Carolina border is one of 16 Southern cities on this list. Though the area’s cost of living is lower than the national average, its median household income is over $3,000 higher than the U.S. median. Nearly half of all people searching for homes in Virginia Beach from outside the metro area are from the Washington, D.C. region, which is just 150 miles away.

Like in most other cities, most people looking on Redfin for a new home in the New Orleans metro area already live there. Still, more than 30% of searches for a place to live in the area are by people living outside New Orleans. Those who were searching for homes in New Orleans came from a variety of places. No one metro area accounted for more than 10% of searches from outside the metro area, with Los Angeles-area residents accounting for the highest share, at 9.6%.

The Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin metropolitan area is one of several places in the Carolinas that have attracted new residents for years, and continued to do so in 2020. Between 2010 and 2019, the metro area’s population increased by 11.7%, mostly the result of migration. The metro area in 2020 continued to be a popular destination for people looking to relocate, with the New York metropolitan area accounting for the largest share of potential buyers searching for property in the Greenville area.

Unlike many of the metro areas on this list that appear to be popular search destinations for people looking to relocate in 2020, the Greensboro, North Carolina, metro area did not have a particularly high increase in population due to migration through most of the 2010s. From 2010 through 2019, the metro area’s population increased by 4.3% due to net migration, higher than that of many metro areas but lower than almost all those on this list.

Based on data from Redfin, however, the metro area has had a large influx of people looking to relocate there this year. Almost a quarter of people looking to move to Greensboro in the third quarter of 2020 were from the New York metropolitan area.

The majority of people who looked to move to Tucson, Arizona, in 2020 searched from other Western metro areas like Phoenix, Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. More than half of people who looked for a place to live in the Tucson area in 2020 searched from outside the metro area.

Though incomes are relatively low in Tucson, at just over $56,000, it is also relatively inexpensive. The cost of living in Tucson is 6.1% lower than in the typical U.S. city.

Albuquerque barely had more people moving to it than who moved away from 2010 through 2019. However, according to real estate search data collected by Redfin, thousands more people searched for homes in Albuquerque from elsewhere in the country through the first three quarters of 2020 than were looking to leave the metro area.

Close to 60% of people searching for homes within the metro area came from elsewhere, with the highest share of outside searches coming from the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

The San Antonio metropolitan area reported a 19% population increase between 2010 and 2019, with the majority of that growth as a result of net migration. San Antonio is a relatively affordable city, with goods and services costing 6.1% less than the national average, while the median household income of $62,355 is just slightly lower than the U.S. median income.

The metro area has been a relatively popular search destination so far in 2020, with the largest share of people looking to relocate to the metro area originating in Houston.

More than a third of people outside of Atlanta who looked to move to the metro area in 2020 searched from the New York City area. In fact, in seven of the 20 cities on this list, New York City was the top outside metro area where those looking to relocate searched from. New York was one of the cities that was hit the hardest by COVID-19, prompting many New Yorkers to leave.

Atlanta, one of the largest metro areas in the country, has a median household income of $71,742, which is $6,000 higher than the U.S. median. Yet the area’s cost of living is 2.7% lower than the U.S. average.

One of many Florida metro areas to make this list, Jacksonville has had a substantial increase in home searches in each of the first three quarters of 2020.

Among Jacksonville residents looking for homes in the first three quarters of 2020 on Redfin, 75% were looking for homes within the metro area. But of all people looking to buy homes there, about half are from outside the city, with the largest share coming from the Miami-Port St. Lucie-Fort Lauderdale metro area.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Orlando, Florida, metro area remained one of the most popular places for Americans to move, continuing a yearslong trend. From 2010 to 2019, the area’s population grew by 17.3% from net migration, the 15th highest percentage of all U.S. metro areas. The influx of people came largely from other Florida cities like Tampa and Miami, as well as farther north areas, like Washington, D.C. and New York City. New York state had among the largest shares of its population looking to relocate out of the state during 2020 amid the pandemic.

The Charlotte metropolitan area’s median household income of $66,399 is slightly higher than the U.S. median of $65,712. At the same time, the cost of goods and services in the area is 5.8% less expensive that the average across the country.

Like many metro areas with high numbers of people looking for homes in the area, the city has been a popular search destination for New York metro area residents. Over 30% of people searching for homes in Charlotte from outside the metro area have come from the New York metro area.

The Tampa metropolitan area population grew by nearly 400,000 people from 2010 to 2019 due to net migration, and it continued to be a popular relocation destination in 2020. Typically, most people looking for a place to live in a metro area already live in that metro, but in 2020, more than 55% of people who looked on Redfin for somewhere to live in Tampa did not live there. Orlando residents accounted for more people who looked to relocate to Tampa than residents of any other city.

As New Yorkers left the city in droves throughout 2020, many cities in the South like Charleston were popular relocation destinations. More people from New York City sought to move to Charleston than those in any other city.

Charleston may have been an attractive option for people looking to move because homes there are relatively affordable, incomes are higher than the national median, and the cost of living is over 3% lower.

From 2010 to 2019, Myrtle Beach’s population grew by 32.6% from net migration alone, the second highest share among any major U.S. city. It continued to be a popular place for people looking to move in 2020. Typically, most people looking for a house in a major metropolitan area already live there, yet more than three-quarters of people looking to move to Myrtle Beach in 2020 did not. More people from the Washington D.C. area searched for homes in Myrtle Beach than people from any other place.

The Phoenix metropolitan area, along with Tucson, is one of two Arizona cities to rank among the places Americans most want to move to in 2020. Nearly a quarter of people from outside the Phoenix area looking to move there searched from the Los Angeles area. Phoenix has consistently been one of the cities adding the most people through net migration over the past decade.

In addition to warm weather, the cost of living in Phoenix is lower than the overall U.S. cost of living, even though its median household income is over $2,000 higher than the U.S. median household income.

Though it is one of the most popular metro areas where people are looking to move, the majority of people using Redfin to look for a home in Nashville are in the Nashville area already. Nashville’s population grew by 17.5% from 2010 to 2019 due to net migration, one of the largest increases among all metro areas, and more than double the growth rate of the typical metro area.

Nashville has attracted the largest share of searches for housing from many of America’s largest metro areas, including New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco.

Raleigh is one of five metro areas at least partly in North Carolina to rank among the cheapest cities where Americans are looking to move. It is one of seven such cities in which New York City-area residents are looking to relocate more than residents of any other place, even though Raleigh is about 500 miles away.

The cost of living in Raleigh is 3.4% lower than the U.S. cost of living. At the same time, the area’s median household income of over $80,000 annually exceeds the U.S. median by more than $14,000.

Typically, the people looking to relocate to the cities on this list from other areas are spread out relatively evenly between several metro areas. Those looking to relocate to the Salisbury, Maryland, metro area, however, are mostly from the Washington D.C. area, accounting from more than 70% of home searches. Just 8.1% of people who searched for a place to live in the Salisbury area in the third quarter of 2020 already lived in the area — the lowest share of any qualifying metro area.

The Salisbury area, near the southern tip of Maryland, is across the Chesapeake Bay from Washington, D.C. and about a two-hour drive away from the nation’s capital. Its cost of living is over 11% lower than the national average.

The Cape Coral-Fort Myers metropolitan area tops the list of inexpensive cities where Americans are looking to move. In most places, the majority of people using Redfin to search for a home in a given metro area already live in that area, but more than three-quarters of people researching the Cape Coral area were searching from somewhere else. Miami residents searched more than those in any other metro area.

This continues a years-long trend of people moving to Cape Coral. The area’s population grew by nearly 25% due to net migration from 2010 to 2019. Cape Coral, and many other parts of Florida, have attracted new residents for years, a trend that continued into the pandemic.