Moving

Why Folks Are Shifting to These Cities—and Leaving These Others

The pandemic has pretty much turned everything upside down – including where many people want to live.

According to a recent report from real estate data provider CoreLogic, more people swapped large, expensive cities for smaller, cheaper areas on the coasts with warmer weather last year. Places with cheap real estate and good beach connections were particularly popular with home buyers.

To get to its conclusions, CoreLogic examined mortgage data to see where recent homebuyers moved to in 2020. Tenants were not counted.

“Some of the trends that have existed for several years have really accelerated during the pandemic,” says CoreLogic’s chief economist. Frank Nothaft. “Families were looking for more living space inside and outside their home. With a large part of the workforce able to work remotely, it was no longer necessary for employees to be located close to their employer. You could pick up and move somewhere else. “

The Riverside, California metropolitan area saw the most new residents, according to the report. (Metro typically includes the capital city and nearby smaller towns.) The average list price for a subway home in June was $ 525,500, according to the latest data from Realtor.com®.

“It’s near Los Angeles, it’s near Orange County, it’s near San Diego – but it’s a lot cheaper,” says Nothaft. By comparison, the average June list price was $ 1,024,500 on the Los Angeles metro, about an hour towards the coast; $ 970,000 in Orange County; and $ 830,000 on the San Diego Metro. Buyers “can stay in Southern California and find homes to buy that are far cheaper.”

Riverside followed Lakeland, FL, with an average list price of $ 287,450; Myrtle Beach, SC, at $ 336,950; Las Vegas, at $ 399,950; and Tampa, FL, for $ 349,700. These places tended to offer cheaper real estate and lower property taxes, and some even boasted no state income taxes.

At the other end of the spectrum, suddenly people who could work from almost anywhere were leaving the most expensive and populous cities. Some residents have left to save money, get more spacious living spaces, and get out of crowded areas where it is more difficult to maintain social distance.

New York City lost most of its population. The average list price for homes on the subway was $ 617,500. But it was significantly higher, averaging $ 1.45 million, in the Manhattan borough alone. That might help explain why, for every New York home purchase mortgage application in 2020, nearly six potential buyers have gone away.

Los Angeles followed New York; San Francisco; San Jose, California, in Silicon Valley; and Washington, DC.

Many people left the big cities, but stayed in the same metropolises in search of more space.

“They are moving out of the urban core and moving to the suburbs and suburbs, where there are a lot more single-family houses,” says Nothaft, adding that buyers “now need to have a place for an office at home”. and they may need space for the classroom at home. “

With more residents returning and moving in the big cities now as people are being called back to their offices, businesses have reopened, and college students prepare to return to face-to-face courses, no one really knows what the future will hold.

How the larger, more expensive cities ultimately fare depends heavily on whether employees are allowed to continue working remotely – or whether they are called back to their downtown offices. If they have to go back, it could lead to even more withdrawals to the urban centers.

Generation Z could also play a big role in the future of cities, as they tend to seek the excitement of life at the center of everything.

“When Generation Z leaves school and starts working life, they will revitalize the urban core,” says Nothaft.

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