One of the biggest concerns among investors, landlords, and even the broader business community and governments has been what will happen in big metros because of two factors: office and migration. The fear is that hybrid work will displace even more people from office, adding to long-existing migration patterns.

People would leave even more from the cities, office tenants would make other arrangements, the force of workers no longer coming into the office would upend surrounding retailers, and cities would lose an important tax base. But according to Cushman & Wakefield, things may be improving on the underlying migration issue.

According to the Census Bureau, overall national inter-state migration since 2006 has been fluctuating, from 2.7% in that initial year to a low point of 2.2% in 2010 and then wavering a bit, to the most recently reported 2.4% in 2021. Since 2011, the percentages have been stable within 10 basis points.