From L.A. to Boise: How Migration Has Changed During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

We provide an assessment of how migration patterns and motivations for moving have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. We use proprietary data on over 300,000 residential, interstate moves over the last four years with accompanying survey data. We find more than 10% of moves between April 2020--May 2021 were influenced by COVID-19, with a significant shift in migration towards smaller cities, lower cost of living locations, lower tax locales, and locations with fewer pandemic-related restrictions. Higher income households are moving out of more populous cities at greater rates, and are moving more for lifestyle reasons and less for work-related reasons, consistent with increased location flexibility due to shifts to remote work arrangements. Low income households reasons for moving are relatively unchanged. Our results have implications for many outcomes of interest including the structure of cities, the persistence of remote work arrangements, municipal financing, and real estate.