What the report measured and how
The Institute analyzed aggregated, anonymized Bank of America data covering clients whose accounts remained open from Q1 2023 through Q2 2026. The dataset spans consumer checking and savings, credit and other investment accounts, plus payments and both credit and debit card transactions. Migration trends were inferred from changes in customers' home addresses and analyzed by metro area.
Who is moving less and where
Address changes declined again in Q2 2026 across income groups and generations. Long-distance relocations remain softer than local moves, and the year-over-year drop in same-city moves quickened during the quarter. The slowdown spans all brackets, hitting lower-income households hardest, then middle-income households, with higher-income customers also moving less than a year ago but to a lesser extent.
By generation, only Gen Z has more movers than two years prior, although its momentum has cooled during the past year. Millennials are experiencing the sharpest pullback. Among Gen X, the number of movers is off by about 5% year over year, while baby boomers are down roughly 4%. For housing professionals, fewer relocations mean less churn in sales and rentals, marginally slower household formation, and a greater reliance on refinances, HELOCs and renovation financing over purchase originations or listings driven by moves.
Regional growth patterns continue to shift. The Midwest still leads domestic population gains, with many of the fastest-growing metros in that region, and Salt Lake City was the top-ranking fastest-growing metro overall in Q2 2026. Indianapolis, Columbus, Louisville, Cincinnati and Milwaukee continued to rank near the front of the pack, while several markets saw slower growth, especially Minneapolis. In the South, Raleigh, North Carolina, and Birmingham, Alabama, posted steady gains, and Birmingham's growth quickened in Q2 2026. Pittsburgh led all Northeastern metros in growth within the dataset.
Populations continued to decline across most of the largest U.S. metros, except in Dallas, Phoenix and Philadelphia. Outflows increased somewhat in Boston, Chicago, Atlanta and Washington, D.C., but eased in Los Angeles, New York City and Miami. In Florida, the pattern looks steadier: population outflows decelerated across most major MSAs. Orlando saw a modest slowing in outflows, Tampa's outflows essentially stalled, and Jacksonville's population growth accelerated. These shifts bolster the post-pandemic theme of expansion in smaller and mid-sized markets, particularly in the Midwest and select Sun Belt metros.
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Spending around moves and the move toward services
Despite the decline in relocations, expenditures associated with moving are increasing. According to Bank of America card records, the average household's total card outlays across the six months before a move, the move month, and the six months after were much higher in July 2026 than a year earlier, after roughly two years of flat readings. Using a three-month moving average, July movers' total card spending increased 9.5% from a year earlier, compared with a 5.5% gain for all customers.
Payments to moving companies increased, and online purchases linked to moves also grew. Part of this increase likely reflects higher fuel prices passed through by moving companies, plus a shift toward younger, higher-income movers who prefer services and online shopping. By contrast, movers put only about 1% more on their cards at furniture shops and home-improvement chains versus a year ago. The Institute interprets this as a tilt toward convenience: a larger share is being directed to services and online options, with a smaller share reaching large-format furniture and home-improvement outlets during the narrow period around the move. For retailers tied to the housing ecosystem, the traditional "moving bump" is increasingly accruing to service firms and e-commerce platforms.
Rising HELOC use and what it implies
HELOC utilization has been climbing since 2024 and now sits above its 2014-2019 average, as the effective federal funds rate has edged down from the highs reached in 2023-2024. By June 2026, spending financed by HELOCs for home-related purchases and for services had jumped markedly from a year earlier and from pre‑pandemic benchmarks. Although the pace of HELOC-backed growth in home categories has cooled in 2026 relative to 2025, activity in services and in HELOC-funded transfers/withdrawals has picked up. A portion of these transfers and service payments likely reflects renovation work settled straight with contractors instead of going through home-improvement retailers.
Despite the latest increases, spending on services funded by HELOCs is still far under the summertime 2020 surge that accompanied pandemic-driven remodeling. Even so, the data suggest a steady foundation of renovation work financed by existing home equity rather than by new purchase loans and moves. With purchase activity held back by low mobility and a large stock of low-rate mortgages, lenders are leaning more on HELOCs and other equity-based products. The figures point to consistent renovation demand for contractors and builders, with an increasing portion of dollars paid straight to providers.
