In 2024, household mobility dropped to its lowest recorded rate, with slightly more than one in ten households making a move, according to Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. This latest decrease was primarily driven by homeowners, who chose to remain in their homes due to elevated interest rates and housing prices. Meanwhile, renter mobility remained stable as the number of moves into new units balanced out the impact of high lease renewal costs. Recent estimates indicate that there will be no significant changes in these factors in 2025, suggesting that the last two years represent a “new normal” of reduced mobility in the nation.
Newly available data from the American Community Survey (ACS) indicates that 14.8 million households relocated in 2024, resulting in a mobility rate of 11.2%, which is the lowest recorded in this survey. The proportion of households relocating within the state, which is the most frequent kind of move, dropped to an unprecedented low of 8.6%.
Following a significant increase during the pandemic, the number of households relocating across state lines has also declined. Household relocations from abroad remained constant at 0.5% during 2023–2024, slightly higher than in previous years owing to the rise in immigration; however, this figure does not capture the complete extent of the increase, as new arrivals typically have low household formation rates.
High interest rates and home prices disincentivized homeowners, leading to a reduction of 320,000 moves and subsequently driving the decline in household mobility. In 2024, the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) was 6.7%, while the median price of a single-family home was nearly five times the median household income, setting a near-record. As a result, the total number of existing home sales in 2024 was 4.06 million, marking a slight decrease from the 4.09 million recorded in 2023.
Young adults were hit hardest by these affordability challenges, as many of them bought homes during the pandemic. In fact, between 2019 and 2021, the household mobility rate among homeowners younger than 45 increased from 12.4% to 13.8%, driven by declining interest rates and a rise in first-time homebuyers. Then, the mobility rate decreased as younger homeowners remained in their homes and the number of households entering homeownership declined over the following three years. The number of young homeowner movers decreased by 185,000 from 2023 to 2024, resulting in a mobility rate of 9.8%.
Mobility among renter households remained constant between 2023 and 2024. It was estimated that in 2024, there were 180,000 additional renter household movers; however, their mobility rate did not show a statistically significant increase compared to 2023. This could be attributed to the balancing influences of new rental supply becoming available and the high rate of lease renewals among current renters. The year 2024 saw a remarkable influx of rental supply, with the completion of 608,000 multifamily units—the highest figure since 1986.
Absorptions—units transitioning from available to occupied—were robust as well, estimated at 550,000, with each representing a move by a renter household. However, the lease renewal rate for large multifamily buildings rose from 60.5 percent in 2023 to 62.0 percent in 2024, as many current renters opted to renew their leases, which may have counterbalanced the rise in moves into new units.
Although these data originate from 2024, the latest year for which ACS data is available, evidence suggests that mobility did not change in 2025. The 30-year FRM rate saw only a minor reduction, reaching a low of 6.15 percent and averaging 6.60 percent during 2025, which did not greatly enhance affordability.
In Q3 2025, it was proven true that half of the outstanding residential mortgages had interest rates under 4 percent, and existing home sales matched those of 2024. For those renting, lease renewal rates stayed elevated while occupancy rates decreased as supply started to exceed demand. In 2025, average advertised multifamily rent remained unchanged for the first time since 2020, due to a slowing demand. This implies that renters have more opportunities to relocate, but their mobility does not significantly rise.
The latest drop in household mobility is a continuation of a trend that has persisted for decades. The current situation is that numerous households seem to be “locked in” to their residences. As a result, it is possible that households are less inclined to pursue improved employment, education, or living situations, thereby restricting their capacity to react to opportunities or crises. This also restricts the adaptability of labor markets, which may exacerbate regional economic divergence as opportunities become concentrated in affluent communities.
While trends can change rapidly, as seen during the pandemic, a lack of fundamental alterations to the housing market will result in lower household mobility becoming ingrained.
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