A record 31.2 percent of people using real estate brokerage Redfin’s website to look for new homes in January and February were searching outside of their current residence areas, the company said.
The number was 26 percent for the same period last year, which predated the COVID pandemic.
As more employers allow workers to work from home, more people are relocating to cheaper, more spacious homes or to be closer to family, analysts say.
The net migration by Redfin users out of Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco “increased significantly” year over year, Redfin said in a statement announcing its finding.
The net outflow from the District of Columbia and Seattle more than doubled, the report noted.
However, migrants did not necessarily travel far.
Philadelphia, with an average home price of $238,000, was the most popular destination for refugees from the New York City area, where home prices average $598,000.
Migrants leaving San Francisco most often resettled in Sacramento; home prices average $658,000 and $490,000, respectively, in those cities.
Because a record number of people are searching for homes outside of their current metro centers even as the economy begins to recover, “the rise in moving from one part of the country to another is likely to outlast the pandemic,” Redfin CEO Daryl Fairweather said in comments quoted by Fox Business.
“For many Americans, one long-lasting effect of the pandemic and remote work is the freedom to live where they want to,” he said.
TREND FORECAST: This is old news to Trends Journal subscribers, as we had forecast this when the COVID War was launched in March 2020. The move from big cities trend will continue as more people work from home, unemployment rises, and people can’t afford high rents and as urban decay, i.e., crime and homelessness, increases.
There will be new generations, however, of young city dwellers moving into urban areas as rents decline and it is more affordable to open businesses and rent apartments. according to real estate firm JLL, rents for expensive office space, including concessions, fell around 17 percent over the past year in New York and San Francisco and 13 percent nationwide.
While this will spark some life back in the cities, it will not be sufficient to reverse the downturn.
