Migration picked up quickly following the lifting of COVID-era shelter-in-place orders, according to a new report from Apartment List, with more Americans moving in the year following the pandemic than in the prior year.

While the national mover rate has dropped by more than half since the mid-1980s, 16% of full-time workers moved between April 2020 and April 2021—and Google Trends now indicates that interest in apartment rentals is higher than pre-pandemic levels. 

Apartment hunters are also wealthier than ever before, thanks in part to the geographic flexibility granted by generous WFH policies and to the increasing unaffordability of homeownership. The average household income reported by Apartment List users is 5% higher than pre-pandemic levels, and that is reflected in renter budgets: in Q2 2021, Apartment List users were willing to spend an all-time high average of $1,335 for a new apartment, a 6.5% increase over Q1 numbers.