Episode 208: Where People Are Moving Now

People are still moving south, but not just for sunshine. We sit down as Zac Daniel of Victorian Finance and Luke Barksdale of Viz3D Space to unpack what’s actually driving the relocation wave, where demand is concentrating, and why the Southeast continues to punch above its weight in housing, jobs, and lifestyle. If you’ve been watching the headlines and wondering whether the market is “good” or “bad,” we bring it back to the choices buyers and builders have to make right now.

We start with the big-picture map: the Carolinas, Tennessee, Florida, and Texas, plus the new construction surge that’s reshaping inventory. Then we narrow in on the North Alabama real estate market, where Huntsville’s growth spills into Madison, Limestone County, and Athens. We talk commute reality, school systems, and why people fleeing high-cost areas often see the Huntsville metro as a rare mix of opportunity and affordability. Military contracts, Redstone Arsenal, NASA, Blue Origin, Mazda Toyota Manufacturing, and possible Space Command relocation all show up as real demand drivers, not hype.

From there, we get honest about mortgage interest rates. We walk through the recent dip, the snapback, and why oil prices, inflation, the bond market, the Fed, and politics can move rates faster than most people expect. Our practical takeaway: don’t buy or build at the edge of your budget, treat land and financing as part of the same package, and think of refinancing as a separate move you can make later if a window opens.

Stick with us to the end for a preview of Season Three, where we shift into home maintenance, longevity, and how to protect the investment after you get the keys. If this helped you think more clearly, subscribe, share with a friend who’s debating a move, and leave us a review.

Transcript

Welcome And Season Finale Plan

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Hey everybody, welcome back to Constructive Conversations. My name is Zach Daniel with Victorian Finance.

SPEAKER_01 0:08

And I'm Luke Barkstill with Viz3D Space.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

So, Luke, what we're going to talk about today is uh several topics, kind of make it a little bit longer of an episode as we wrap up our season two finale here. But we're going to discuss uh markets that people are moving into nationally. Take it and focus in more on North Alabama and yours and I market. And we'll kind of update uh where the market is at with interest rates and what's going on in the news, and then give a sneak peek of what season three of Constructive Conversation is going to be about.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Yeah,

The New Migration Hotspots

SPEAKER_01 0:42

yeah. So, you know, start just starting out um the markets people are moving to right now. Um I think you know, we're we're obviously in North Alabama, Huntsville is one of the biggest, or it is the biggest city in Alabama, and just really thriving. I think the you know we're we're in a little bit of a bubble as far as the rest of the nation's concerned. Um it it's nice to be here.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

Yeah, I would say so. But you know, there's other bubbles and the nation too. Yeah. Uh some of those areas are really like the Carolinas. Yeah. Uh there's lots of new construction, lots of people moving to that area of the nation. Uh Tennessee, Florida, and Texas. Texas right now is the new construction capital of the United States. That's where most of the new construction is happening right now.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Yeah, I think you know, just the South, Southeast in general. You've got obviously there's political reasons. Uh, some of those political reasons end up driving some commerce into these areas. The commerce expands, they move jobs, and that's where we see a lot of boom and growth that we have locally as well in some of these areas. And not necessarily like in the big cities, but in the surrounding cities of the big cities.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

The suburbs of them. Yeah, and that really goes to uh one of the other driving factors is affordability. Uh more of the southern regions, it's

Affordability Quality Of Life Drivers

SPEAKER_00 2:07

just more affordable to live in than the northern regions.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Like drastically so. Like way, way more affordable.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Yeah, I know people that live kind of in the far northwest, and just for the house that you can buy there versus the house that you can buy here is so drastic. Uh, you we have people relocating from Colorado, California, Arizona all the time. Uh, and just for what they can afford here versus what they're affording back home is yeah, night and day.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

I mean, a lot of places up north you're seeing, you know, $400 a square foot in some places. It's just like a like an average like build cost coming up.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Here, that's like a premium home. That's a that's a very, very, very nice home that didn't appraise. You came out of pocket with some serious cash to get it done, right? We're we're more around like the anywhere from like the 225 to like 275 a square foot. Even some of the nicer places here are 300s. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

So and so you're just there's so much more house that you can get with your dollar here. That's right. Uh, and another driving factor, um, you know, in the south, there are weather is more favorable, uh, especially in the winter months. Um, we're not gonna get the huge blizzards and be shut down for long periods of time here. Uh it it is hot.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

Yeah, we got a w weather fluctuates a little bit more, but yeah, you know, I think what you're seeing too is there's a there's a reprioritization of like quality of life over like just the convenience of being in a big city. Yeah. You know, you've seen a lot of people say, I'm going to the suburbs where you know I got a little bit of a neighborhood, maybe a little bit of land, maybe they move out a little bit. Um, you know, getting that outdoor lifestyle that the South gives.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

I I agree. I mean there's a lot of uh live and play activity, especially now. Um I know it's not as prevalent now as it was during COVID, um, but there's still a lot of remote working job opportunities. And if people can kind of move here and have uh better quality of life, more comfortable living financially, and uh plenty of things to do activity-wise and still be able to work from wherever. Yeah, uh that that's still a lot of possibility in that region.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

Oh, yeah, yeah. And you know, I think you you see it now, like you can just drive down. There's so much new construction happening right now that opportunity to purchase some of these new houses is is pretty pretty readily available. Like you can get stuff that's ready to move in, you can get stuff that you can give a little bit of customization to, or you can do like full customization on stuff. So you got everything in between, it's capturing a lot of the market.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

Yeah, I I agree. So, you know, that's on a national

Huntsville Metro Expansion And Commutes

SPEAKER_00 4:59

scale. Looking more into our region, specifically North Alabama. I mean, Huntsville just I feel like Huntsville is expanding to just all of North Alabama at at this point.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

Feels like it, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_00 5:11

Uh it is, because even the regions around Huntsville are just kind of being swallowed up by Huntsville. I mean, take Madison, for example. Madison is completely landlocked around Huntsville.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

It just keeps annexing areas around Madison to where Yeah, like if you're native here, you know that the two are different, but like if you're just coming in, it they're indistinguishable from one another. You can't tell.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

No, you can't. Uh and Huntsville is expanding on into Limestone County uh towards Athens. Yeah, if people are moving from out of state or other regions, Athens is very affordable uh to live in right now. There's a lot of land, there's a lot of new construction opportunity there, but it takes what 20 to 30 minutes to commute into Redstone Arsenal from there. I mean, it it's a very uh desirable place to live.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

Oh yeah, man. Well, you know, I live a fair distance from Huntsville. Like I live south of Arab, and it's only like 40 minutes to get to pretty much anywhere in Huntsville. And that's, you know, in in coming from north the north, that's a basic commute, right? 30, 40 minute commute's nothing. Yeah, you know, in a short distance. I'm covering a pretty large expanse of land to get there in 40 minutes.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

I know people that live in Atlanta that I mean you can live three miles away and it's an hour commute for you.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

Right. And so, you know, people get tired of stuff like that. Uh when you can get a little peace and quiet out in a suburb and then have the same commute in. Nothing that you're you're buying peace, you're buying good school systems, like that that's what you're getting. And you know, a lot of what you see because of Huntsville, we obviously know a lot of military contracts. Yeah. And so there's you know, incentives and subsidies and things like that available for people to come by some of these houses that are military.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Oh, absolutely. I mean, there's other military is a huge driving factor of North Alabama, but you know, we also have NASA. We have Blue Origin here, Toyota. Mazda Toyota Manufacturing. Um, you know, Space Command is uh looking to relocate here. I saw in the news the other day, I think they have a projected time of 2031 uh to be here, but they're starting that migration of people now. Uh oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

I mean, you're not gonna wait till 2031 to relocate, especially it's not it's never just I'm coming to take a job there. It's typically like I'm coming take a job, and then you know, grandma wants to move too, and maybe there's a cousin that wants to move down, so everybody stays closed. So it's it's typically two or three families coming for every relocation.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

Well, and then even with all the influx of relocation, city municipalities and services need to adjust for that too. So more people in the police force, more fired fired, uh, more garbage and um, yeah, the job growth is great right now.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

Oh, absolutely. But we we have like a very good economical situation in North Alabama that I think a lot of people take for granted, like because of just you know, national news, people kind of hating on the way things are. But again, back to the bubble, like we we live in very much like a bubble in society right now that we just have a lot coming in.

SPEAKER_00 8:40

And you know, I feel like the secret is getting out, but um a lot of the growth that I've seen on the lending side has been people migrating into Tennessee, Nashville specifically.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

Nashville's cost of living has grown gone up significantly because of the amount of people coming into the area. So they're looking at suburbs, you know, they're looking in Franklin, and Franklin has even become a higher cost of living. Oh yeah. So then just look 30 minutes down the road and you're in the Huntsville metro area, they will look and you know, pay less property taxes to live across the state line in Alabama and then Tennessee, but still commute to Tennessee because it's depending on where you're going, it's forty-five minutes to an hour to get there, but from where they've relocated from, uh that's a normal commute for them.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

Yeah, and you know, it's that it's that same thing you get come to when you're looking at a car, you're looking at anything else, it's value versus like quality kind of thing. Like the value you're getting for the price you're paying. It I don't know, it's really hard to beat North Alabama right now. It's a hard thing. You get a lot for being here, you know.

SPEAKER_00 10:01

No, I I a hundred percent agree with it.

Mortgage Rates Timing And Budget Rules

SPEAKER_00 10:04

Um another segment that we really want to discuss today is where the market is. Um not necessarily where to move to, but interest rates. Interest rates have been in the news so much in the past month, and I tell you, it has been like a roller coaster working in the mortgage industry. Yeah, by the end of February, interest rates were at the lowest point that they have been since 2022. And we just all the things were clicking, everything was forecast like the man, this is gonna be great. This is the year. Rates are coming down, we have so many things stacked up, just pointing us in the right direction. And then about a week later, they just shot right back up, and everything that we had worked towards gains just went out the door uh with the conflict going on in Iran right now and oil prices just skyrocketing.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

You know, I I was having this conversation with a friend of mine the other day. There's this there's this mentality though, you know, we saw two and three percent interest rates a few years back, and people locked those in, and so now they're like, well, I can't, I you know, I can't go to the next house. You really can, you know, saying can't is a is a harsh thing. You can, it just means something. But like historically speaking, even where we're at right now, while it seems high because we just came off of two and threes, it's historically like a fairly low interest rate for housing.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

It is, it is, and you know, the argument will always be sure, interest rates are low, but house prices are going up. That's right. And they always will. It'll never be cheaper than today.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

No. Like buying a house, building a house the same today or for tomorrow, like it'll never be cheaper than than today. A week from now, we can say it'll never be cheaper than today.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

You're 100% right, because if you want to wait for interest rates to come down, like they did a month ago, you know, we finally we got into the mid-fives, and that was that was a great time uh for refinances for people that bought a year or two ago, they finally were able to uh take some relief off their seven and a half interest rates. Um, that was a great time to refinance. And pockets will happen like that where the rate will drastically drop. Right. But if you wait for those moments to come, then the house prices are gonna continue to go up.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

You're waiting on a rare event, you're not waiting on an everyday occurrence. You're you're you're waiting to hit red, right? Like it's you're kind of just rolling the dice. And I don't know, my take on it is I really think if you're looking to build something, you're looking to buy something, don't build or buy to the edge of your means. And what I mean by that is like when you're designing a house for like new construction, let's talk about that for a minute. Don't if your budget is 700,000, don't put 700,000 in the house in the house alone, right? Like, take it as a package, right? You're you need to think about how many points can I buy, how do I factor that into the financing? Like, if 700 is the number, that all needs to fall within there, which may mean a little bit less finishes, a little bit less square footage to get you in that custom home.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

And I know we've talked about it tons before, but if you have to find land to go into that budget, then that land needs to be part of that $700,000 budget.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

Absolutely. I was talking to a couple yesterday and they were looking at a pre-built house, and then weighing that between buying and the lot they were looking at, it's like $200,000. Right? So it's not it's not like a small number, you know, it's a it's a substantial piece of the budget.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

Yeah, and I mean land is just as as expensive as building is. Um land is never gonna be getting cheaper. No, it's no different than you know, if you talk to a financial advisor, they'll always tell you, when's the best time to invest? Yesterday. Yeah, that's right. Um, you know, the second best day is today. The longer you wait to invest, you know, you're you're just gonna be missing out because time in the market is better than timing in the market.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

Yeah, if like if you don't want to do anything, there's nothing wrong with that. That's fine. Sit tight, maybe you're in the exact perfect spot. But like if you are wanting to do something, then the only thing between you and making that decision is coming up with that team and that plan that we keep talking about. And once you're there and you have that and you have a plan and the desire to do the thing, you should do that because it's not gonna be you're not gonna wait 12 months and go, oh my gosh, like I'm financially I'm worlds better. Make the move if you can afford to do it, and then catch whatever refi waves you can after the fact.

SPEAKER_00 15:07

Exactly. You know, refi is different than purchase. Refi timing the market is everything. That's that's when you make moves. But you need to get in the market, start building equity uh now because it otherwise you just wait forever.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

You'll just sit and you'll keep having the same conversation with yourself. Well, it'll be cheaper next year. Well, it'll be cheap. Maybe lumber will go down next year. It's not going to. Like your your oil prices in Iran are not causing the materials to spike over what they have been over the past 12 months. It like we're we're just expensive, man. Like building is just high right now.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Yeah. So,

Why Rates Swing So Fast

SPEAKER_00 15:48

you know, we've kind of touched on it. Uh, I just know people always are gonna want to know why are rates going up? I mean, if what I say is true, if all the things are kind of stacking up like this was gonna be the year that rates are coming down, then why haven't they? Why did they temporarily come down and shoot back up? You know, and the answer is just really there's so many factors that go into interest rates. Um, we talked about the oil prices. That did have a heavy impact because that the oil prices going up increased inflation and really made the bond market be kind of volatile. It didn't know what it wanted to do. People who were investing in one thing pulled out and investing in other things, and that just really changes what the bond markets do. Yeah, it's largely political. It a hundred percent is always gonna be political. Um, you know, the feds met this earlier this month or last month now and uh decided to hold interest rates because of where the inflation rate was. They had been cutting rates uh the last four times that they met, right? Uh and they were projected to cut them throughout the rest of this year, and then they just all of a sudden came out and said, Well, based on job numbers and where inflation are, we're gonna hold them right now. Yeah. Um, and that that just is really the main drivers of what causes interest rates to fluctuate the way they do. And it's nothing that anybody can ever predict or control.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

Right. Yeah, and it's one of those things like you got a new Fed chair going in, you we said in May. Maybe going in in May, so who knows, right? Like that that he's he's going in. There's a political push by the Trump administration to have lower rates, to keep promises fulfilled. At the same time, you do have the Iran stuff going on. So there's got to be a balance struck between those things and where they find that. Well, we're all just kind of riding that wave.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

Yeah, yeah, we we absolutely are. Um but you know, that's kind of where the market is at right now, and it's um there's still people moving in the regions that we discussed. There's driving factors of the work-life balance, there's the comfort level, there's the affordability, um, so it's all kind of across the southern southeastern region.

Season Two Wrap And What’s Next

SPEAKER_00 18:20

Um, and then kind of diving into our market specifically. We got the military contracts, we got relocation for tech uh to support the DOD. We have Blue Origin, we have NASA Space Command, FBI, FBI, and we got Mazda Toyota, so it's it's a great area to be in where we are at. And, you know, that just really wraps up what we've had going on for season two. It's a good kind of uh explanation point to put on to this season of just market validity and uh what this year is gonna be holding for you.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

Yeah, man, we've covered a lot this season, you know, we've covered buyers, we've covered sellers, insurance, I mean, like a whole bunch of stuff. Um so things have been a good one.

SPEAKER_00 19:09

I I do too. I think it has been just uh a great thing for people just to be more educated about what's going on in the market um and why it is a good time to look at buying, building, investing, whatever you want to do, and now is the time to do it.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So uh Zach, you want to kind of, you know, as we wrap up this season uh with this episode, you want to kind of give them a preview of season three and talk about that a

Season Three Home Maintenance Playbook

SPEAKER_01 19:36

little bit?

SPEAKER_00 19:36

Yeah, so season three is something that I am really excited about doing.

SPEAKER_01 19:40

That's good.

SPEAKER_00 19:41

Uh so season three, we are gonna really stay on the theme of maintaining your new home. Yeah. So whether you have just recently bought something or built something, it's yours and it's your investment. And you want to just maintain it and take good care of it.

SPEAKER_01 20:00

The house is not something you can sit on the shelf and forget about. It's always it's like a car, you're changing oil, you're rotating tires. So there's always something you need to be keeping up with. How, when, who you should call. Like those are the things. So, you know, our heart in this is to A, help you guys figure out how to get a home built. You know, that's season one. Season two is you know, where does opportunity exist for me in the markets and how how some ways I can get plugged into that kind of stuff? And then season three is gonna be like, okay, once you've done these things, how how do you maintain it?

SPEAKER_00 20:34

Because if you don't, it will be expensive.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

Yeah, how do you give it longevity? Yeah, you know, what what are we doing?

SPEAKER_00 20:40

You you know, maintaining your home, doing small things either monthly or annually, or you know, bi-annually are is gonna be something that is really going to make your investment last because if you neglect it, it will cost you a lot of money in the future.

SPEAKER_01 20:58

Yeah, so you know, season three, we're gonna be having uh electricians, plumbers, HVAC, maybe a builder, insurance agent, groupers, home inspectors, foundation. Yeah, it's we just kind of want to go through each layer of what a house is so that people know okay, like if I'm dealing with an issue here, that is the kind of person I call. You may call that person, but it at least you know like what you're talking about and can kind of handle it.

SPEAKER_00 21:28

Absolutely. We'll talk about home warranties and getting appliances under appliances under warranty, and then you know, after your warranty period, or if you didn't do new construction, then what's something else that you can do? Uh, you know, so I want to really emphasize we'll get the professionals in here and really discuss week to week on ways to maintain your home and take care of your investment.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

Absolutely, absolutely. So, this has been a great season, too, guys, and we look forward to uh seeing. You guys back here in season three. Thank you.