Wealthy Americans Moved To These Cities In 2020, Research Shows

The pandemic changed everything in the United States. One of the main most interesting changes? Where people moved and why. Over the pandemic, many families have had to move due to financial situation changes, or due to the fact that because they could work remotely, they finally moved out of the places they called home and to greener, more suburban pastures.

Simply put, issues that popped up this year had big impacts on where people live. And as with all big social change, major patterns emerged about where people moved, and what types of people moved where. In fact, new research shows that the richest Americans moved to very specific cities in 2020. Here’s what we know.

According to Business Insider, the real estate brokerage Coldwell Banker released its 132-page report highlighting where the wealthiest Americans have moved and why. And it turns out there are six different areas in the country that these folks who don’t have to worry about money tend to move to.

The researchers analyzed close to 100,000 moves that took place over the past year. The data shows that those with higher incomes, earning more than $100,000 a year, made up less than half of all movers but made up 75 percent of the people who said their reasons for moving was for telework opportunities.

“Reasons for moving are very different among high-income households and low-income households,” says Peter Haslag, a professor at Vanderbilt who was the lead in the study.

And what might be the most surprising revelation in the data the researchers collected, the wealthy people were moving out of major cities like New York or San Francisco. Big cities have often been where those making higher incomes reside – it’s where the jobs are. But, with the pandemic came a shift in remote working opportunities and those with the cash are making the most of it.

Here are the cities that the richest Americans moved to this year, based on the research:

Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix and the area saw a massive uptick in property buyers from Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle, Debbie Frazelle, a realtor with Coldwell Banker in Phoenix, said, according to Business Insider. She explained that “early in the pandemic, anything under $600,000 blew off the market within 24 hours.”

Denver, Colorado

Denver saw a big uptick in new residents. The local real estate agent told Business Insider that many of the new moves to Colorado came from people leaving California and Texas.

Dallas, Texas

“Luxury prices have, on average, increased by 7%, and while properties have traditionally taken upwards of six months to sell, we are now seeing multiple offers and sales within weeks of coming on the market,” Lori Arnold, a broker with Coldwell Banker Apex in Dallas said. “Our sales in 2020 were up 62% compared to 2019.”

Salt Lake City, Utah

Utah has pretty scenery and a lot of space – and the rich love that. According to a local real estate agent who spoke with the publication, New York and California, they saw the biggest sources of new residents.

Sacramento, California

According to Angela Heinzer, a Coldwell Banker agent in Sacramento who spoke with Business Insider, the city just outside the busiest sections of California saw a homebuyer boom when companies allowed their workers to shift to remote work for at least the remainder of the year.

St. Louis, Missouri

The reason for the uptick in St. Louis was all pandemic-related. “After being cooped up in quarantine, people definitely had the urge to upgrade into living situations with more space and amenities,” John Ryan, a Coldwell Banker Gundaker agent serving St. Louis and its surrounding areas, told Business Insider.

The shift to remote work has been a big thing for many companies and their employees, including the richest Americans. We’re guessing if the trend continues, we’ll see a larger distribution of wealthy people living all over the US – and in the long run, that’s a good thing.