HousingWire
The onset of COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 set off a wave of domestic migration that reoriented housing markets across the country, turning some metro areas into boomtowns and sinking a number of others.
The phrase “flight to the suburbs” came to define this trend in a way that suggested that big cities were on fire and residents were running for their lives. But five years after it started, data suggests that the reality was much less dramatic and largely temporary.
“There was definitely a real shift in the early part of the pandemic, but now that we are several years out, the pattern has become more complex,” said Nadia Evangelou, a senior economist with the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR). “It’s not just about suburbs anymore. People are reevaluating what they want out of the community, and that’s why we’re seeing migration to certain places.”