New York and San Francisco are seeing the largest number of residents looking to leave the city, according to Redfin.
U.S. homebuyers are looking to flee expensive coastal metropolises such as New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and are instead turning their attention to smaller, inland cities, according to a report Friday from Redfin.
Though migration away from major cities has been prevalent for at least five years, the coronavirus pandemic and the increased time spent at home that has accompanied it has exacerbated the trend, the estate agency said.
“People who can work remotely are re-examining where they want to live, and for most of them that means they’re looking at places that are less expensive,” Veronica Clyatt, a Redfin agent in Pleasanton, California, a city roughly 40 miles east of San Francisco, said in the report.
“Everyone wants a bigger house and a bigger yard, and they want to pay less. A lot of people moving away from the Bay Area have had it in the pipeline for awhile, and remote work is accelerating the process,” she said.
Such is the exodus from the Bay Area, that close to a quarter of sellers in San Francisco are having to discount their asking prices to temp buyers, Mansion Global reported this week.
For those looking to relocate to a new metro area, Sacramento, California, was the top destination in July, the report said. More than 50% of people searching Redfin.com for homes in the city last month were out-of-towners.
The net inflow of searches to the city—how many more people are looking to move to the area than leave—hit 8,070, up from 4,497 at the same time last year.
Phoenix and Las Vegas ranked as the next most popular areas for buyers to search for a new home, according to the report.
“It’s a feeding frenzy in Las Vegas right now, with low inventory and tons of interested buyers. We’re seeing mass migration of people from other states moving into Nevada,” Las Vegas Redfin agent Marco Di Pasqualucci, said in the report. “The lack of state income tax, warm climate and the relatively low cost of housing—you can buy a nice home for around $300,000—make Las Vegas an attractive place for people looking to move away from expensive areas.”
New York saw the highest number of those seeking homes outside the city. There, 26,584 residents were looking for homes in other areas in July, compared to 21,692 last year. San Francisco came a close second with a net outflow of 26,247, up from 17,052 in 2019.
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This article was first published at mansionglobal.com.