Existing-home sales are rising the most in the South and Midwest regions of the country, indicating more people are considering a move there, the National Association of REALTORS® reports. The South’s share of nationwide existing-home sales increased from 36% in 2000 to 43% in October of this year; the Midwest’s share rose from 21% to 24% in the same time period.

“While the Midwest region suffered a loss in population during 2000 to 2018, it is now beginning to experience an increase in net domestic migration,” NAR researcher Scholastica “Gay” Cororaton wrote on the association’s Economists’ Outlook blog. The majority of people moving to the Midwest are considered to be in their “working years,” between the ages of 30 to 44. Job growth has been a critical factor in raising domestic migration, Cororaton notes.

Between 2000 and 2018, Florida claimed the largest net domestic migration with the addition of 2.4 million residents. The state also boasted 2.1 million more net payroll jobs, a 32% increase. Texas also saw an upswing in domestic migration in the same time period with the addition of 2 million residents, NAR reports. The state created the most jobs at 3.7 million, a 40% increase. New residents to Texas in 2018 were most likely to come from California, Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Missouri.

North Carolina and Arizona each drew 1.1 million new residents from 2000 to 2018. Other states that posted strong job growth and an increase in net domestic migration included Colorado, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Oregon, Washington, and Nevada, according to NAR’s analysis.

On the other hand, states in the Northeast and West regions have lost population. The Northeast has seen its share of existing-home sales fall from 18% in 2000 to 12% in October 2019. The West also saw its sales fall during that time period from 23% to 21%.

© National Association of REALTORS®