The Census Bureau estimates indicate how the population changed in the 387 US metro areas from July 1, 2024, to July 1, 2025. Most experienced at least some population jump, but at a cooler pace than the same period a year earlier, mainly due to smaller net international migration.
"Domestic migration patterns continue to redistribute the population from the largest counties to less populous ones. Collectively, the 50 counties with 1 million or more people in 2025 had a net domestic migration loss of 637,634."
Miami was hyped as the next Silicon Valley during the pandemic, but the city saw one of the highest rates of domestic out-migration last year of any major city, indicating that it is a hotspot no more.
The February PAPI declined over the month and is nearly 10% lower than a year ago, reflecting both reduced payments and steady income growth, Edward Seiler said. While affordability conditions remain challenging in many markets, these incremental gains felt across more than half of states are an encouraging sign for prospective buyers, particularly those seeking lower-payment options.
Ginsburg stated that treating builder business as a core pillar rather than a side channel reflects a broader industry shift. He believes a healthy balance of builders should be around 15% to 20% of the overall retail book of business.
The cost rose a lot following the pandemic. And some of that was supply chain issues that really increased the costs, and then they didn't quite come back down. And now tariffs are also impacting some products. These costs are part of the reason the amount of new rental housing stock is shrinking.
Although affordability is improving across the US, Zillow senior economist Kara Ng told Business Insider that buyers may not feel it in already expensive markets, like Seattle, for example. "The typical household buying a typical home in Seattle is going to spend 47% of their income on monthly payments," Ng told Business Insider. "We expect them to spend from 47% down to 45% over the next year. So that's an improvement in affordability, but it's a very different starting place."
Existing home sales fell 8.4% from December to January, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday. Economists had expected a 4.6% monthly drop, according to WSJ data. Sales were down 4.4% from a year earlier, hitting a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.91 million. Zoom in: The decline was most acute for single-family homes, where sales fell 9%. Regionally, the West was down 10.3%, the South 9% and the Midwest 7.1%, while the Northeast rose 5.9%.