SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) – A new report appears to show that homebuyers are still looking to leave the Bay Area in search of more affordable places to live.
According to real estate brokerage company Redfin, homebuyers continue to leave expensive places like San Francisco, New York, and Washington DC and are looking to buy homes in more affordable Metro areas with better weather.
After analyzing the millions of search results on the Redfin website, the company determined that Las Vegas, Phoenix, Miami, and Sacramento are among the most popular destinations.
Taylor Marr is the Deputy Chief Economist at Redfin. He says that the shift from expensive coastal Metros to more affordable areas has been going on for a while, but the pandemic really heated up the real estate market and it has stayed hot because it takes time for homebuyers to figure things out.
“A lot of families that were homeschooling or remote learning or didn’t know what their long-term plans were had to figure things out with work. Maybe people are still switching jobs over the last year or moving into a job that is more remote-friendly that allows them to move to a cheaper area and keep the high pay and we see a lot of that happening,” Marr said.
Looking forward, Marr is reluctant to make any predictions but believes the trend will continue because working from home has become more widely accepted.
“There’s a permanent critical juncture. A shift of more flexible work of more dispersed. I think there’s technology adoption that happened during the pandemic move to cheaper areas will sustain,” Marr said.
