Only about 1 in 10 households moved in 2024, study finds
The U.S. household mobility rate fell to 11.2% in 2024, Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies found — and early 2025 data indicates not much has changed.
A new Harvard study confirms what activity within the real estate industry has indicated over the past few years: Households have mostly stayed put, regardless of whether they own their homes or are renting.
The latest research from Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) found that the American household mobility rate was 11.2% in 2024 — the lowest ever recorded in the nearly 20-year-old survey's history.
A 'new normal'? While data from 2025 has not yet been finalized, estimates indicate that there was no substantial change. It's a sign that the past two years "reflect a 'new normal' of a less mobile nation," JCHS Senior Research Analyst Riordan Frost wrote in a Feb. 9 blog post.
The recent drop in household mobility was driven by homeowners, according to Frost's post, while rental mobility remained relatively flat. Mobility has declined the most among homeowners under 45, falling from a peak of 13.8% in 2021 — when low mortgage rates enticed many to enter the market — to 9.8% in 2024.
High costs tamping down movement: Affordability remains a key factor in household mobility. In 2024, high 30-year mortgage rates — which averaged 6.7% — and median home prices — which were about five times the median household income — both posed challenges, Frost noted.
The job market, which has been in a low-hire, low-fire environment for some time now, also factors in. The lack of much labor market churn has eliminated a key reason to move. Combined with the mortgage rate "lock-in" phenomenon that emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic, people have little incentive to find a new home.
Frost told Real Estate News via email that the job market is especially impactful on interstate moves. Local moves tend to be driven more by a family's interest in either downsizing or moving to a larger space.
What the trend means for 2026: If 30-year mortgage rates stick around 6.2%, Frost expects some slow improvement in mobility. But locked-in rates and other high costs could undercut this recovery.
A separate study published last fall by Daniel McCue, a Harvard senior research associate, suggests that interest rates would need to drop to nearly zero to bring the monthly mortgage payment on a median priced home back to levels seen in 2020.
Supply boost helped renters: While an uptick in rental supply prompted more households to enter the market in 2024, that activity was balanced out by high renewal rates.
According to the National Association of Home Builders, 608,000 multifamily units were completed in 2024 — the largest amount since 1986. But lease renewals also increased, Frost wrote, jumping from 60.5% in 2023 to 62% in 2024.