(NEXSTAR) — In what some are calling the “Great Reshuffling,” 11 percent of Americans moved in 2020 as the pandemic continued raging across the world, a new survey reports.
The survey, conducted by real estate site Zillow, reported that 75 percent of respondents moved for “positive reasons,” including being closer to family or friends or moving to an area they’ve always wanted to live.
The advent of telework, which was greatly expanded during the pandemic, likely made it easier for people to move to their dream destinations, untethered by the location of their brick-and-mortar office buildings.
The most popular destinations included Phoenix, Arizona, Charlotte, North Carolina and Austin, Texas, all of which saw the highest net inbound moves in the first 11 months of 2020.
Zillow believes movers sought “relative affordability” and “warmer weather.”
The locations with the highest outbound moves include some of the nation’s largest and most expensive housing markets, including New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago, according to northAmerican Van Lines.
“The pandemic brought an acceleration of trends we were seeing in 2018 and 2019,” said Zillow senior economist Jeff Tucker in a statement.
“More affordable, medium-sized metro areas across the Sun Belt saw significantly more people coming than going, especially from more expensive, larger cities farther north and on the coasts. The pandemic has catalyzed purchases by millennial first-time buyers, many of whom can now work from anywhere.”