Renters Are Voting With Their Feet: Who Stays and Who Moves

In Las Vegas, 70% of online rental searches originated from locals in the first quarter of 2026, marking the highest retention rate among the nation's 50 largest metropolitan areas. This trend of local loyalty is echoed in Austin, San Antonio, Houston, and San Diego, where a combination of softening rents, robust job markets, and climate appeal encourages residents to remain in place. Houston has seen a particularly sharp shift, with local retention climbing 11 percentage points since 2020.

Conversely, Raleigh is defined by its influx of newcomers, with 69.1% of rental demand coming from outside the metro area. Similar patterns appear in Richmond, Hartford, and Providence, which are drawing significant interest from renters departing high-cost hubs like New York and Boston. Detroit has experienced the most dramatic transformation in this regard, with out-of-market rental demand nearly doubling over the last six years.

San Francisco presents a unique deviation from these trends. While the national market sees falling rents, San Francisco’s asking rents rose 1.2% year-over-year. Economists attribute this anomaly to the AI-driven tech boom, which appears to be pushing more renters into homeownership. With the city's homeownership rate climbing to 51.7% in the past year, the pool of rental seekers is shrinking, and those who remain are increasingly settled, signaling an end to the post-pandemic reshuffling that characterized earlier years.