Out-of-Towners Pushed the Average Boise Buyer Income 24% Higher During the Pandemic

Boise, Idaho, quickly became a pandemic boomtown as cash-strapped Californians headed east for space and affordability in a Great Migration spurred by remote work, and two years later, regional homebuyer incomes are higher than ever, Redfin reports. The typical Boise homebuyer earned $98,000 in 2021, up 24.1% from 2019 thanks to out-of-town buyers from high-cost coastal job centers squaring off against locals for available for-sale homes. 

While Boise was home to the biggest homebuyer income increase in 2021, it was followed closely behind by other real estate hotspots such as Austin and a number of Florida metros including Cape Coral, North Port, West Palm Beach, and Miami, where homebuyer income growth was more than double the nationwide average of 6.8%

“For white-collar workers earning high salaries, remote work is a huge financial boon. It enables them to move from a tech center like San Francisco to a more affordable part of the country like Boise or Salt Lake City, get more home for their money and save some for a rainy day,” said Redfin Senior Economist Sheharyar Bokhari. “It can have the opposite effect on locals in those destinations–especially renters–who are watching from the sidelines as home prices skyrocket while their income stays mostly the same.”

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