The Midwest is drawing people in as some leave big coastal cities

While the Sunbelt may dominate real estate headlines for the large numbers of people relocating and buying homes in states like Arizona, Texas and Florida, further north, there’s still a number of robust housing markets.

A recent survey by the National Association of Realtors showed that nearly one-fifth of clients bought homes in the Midwest, where jobs, affordable homes and family and friends are attracting homebuyers.

People moving to the Midwest are coming to places like the bi-state Kansas City metropolitan area and Columbus, Ohio, where there’s been lots of development, said Jonathan Rappa with brokerage advisory service MMGRea. 

“There’s a confluence of factors that has really kind of seen development tick up in the Midwest,” Rappa said.

Take Columbus, where Intel is opening up a semiconductor plant nearby and home sales have been strong.

Shaun Simpson, a real estate agent there, is seeing a lot of people come from California, New York and Washington, D.C., “who are looking for a little bit more of an opportunity with a little bit more of an affordable housing aspect.” 

He said these newcomers are also willing to move further from urban centers in exchange for other perks.

“To get the schools they want, the parks they want, the amenities they want,” Simpson said. “And also, a lot of them are bringing cash.” 

Some people are also moving back to the Midwest after moving away, said Matt Christopherson with the National Association of Realtors: 

“It was about a quarter of movers to the Midwest moved back somewhere where they previously lived,” Christopherson said. “So, combining that with the point that they’re really driven by being close to family and friends, they’re most likely moving back to their home, maybe hometown, or at least where their family lives.” 

People have also moved away from the Midwest, but states like Ohio and Indiana have been seeing net migration gains, with affordability playing a role, said economist Ralph McLaughlin at Realtor.com. 

“Places like Akron and St. Louis and Cleveland and Indianapolis. Those are the places where you only need to make [$50,000] to $70,000 to buy the median-priced home,” McLaughlin said.

And he said those markets are likely to stay affordable since they’re less constricted by geography and zoning laws that limit new construction.