According to one home buying site, blue states are losing population to red states for the most part. Redfin.com’s recently announced a list of 10 most popular destination U.S. cities for relocation.
The Redfin 2022 list shows most of the two million people who viewed at least 10 homes in one city on their site planned a moved to somewhere warm. The only city in a blue state to make the list was Sacramento, and the data showed most of the people moving there were from San Francisco.
The nine other cities gaining population were Miami, Fla; Tampa, Fla; Phoenix, Ariz; Las Vegas, Nev; Cape Coral, Fla; North Port, Fla; San Antonio, Texas; Dallas, Texas and Atlanta, Ga.
Other than Tampa, Fla., the planned population increases were coming from blue states. Most of the people who wanted to move to Tampa were from nearby Orlando.
San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C., Seattle, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Portland and Minneapolis were the cities showing the greatest number of residents looking to flee high taxes, high crime rates and stifling regulations.
The comparative freedom in destination states of Florida, Texas and Arizona drew a lot of interest. The lower crime rate and higher temperatures were probably motivating factors as well.
Redfin, however, attributes much of the move to economic flight from unaffordable blue state cities. Citing remote work possibilities embraced by many companies in light of COVID-19 lockdowns, it cites instances of young, mobile companies seeking more affordable cities. It also states investors, both retail and institutional, are investing a lot of money in southern real estate.
Phoenix is luring many out-of-town homebuyers, the site reported. “Some of them are relocating permanently, some are buying vacation homes and some are investors who turn the homes into rentals,” said Phoenix Redfin agent Heather Mahmood-Corley. “I recently worked with a young couple that’s turning their Seattle condo into a rental and moving to Phoenix because they can work remotely and afford a single-family home here.”
“As for the investors, it’s not just corporations coming to Phoenix—it’s individuals, too,” Mahmood-Corley added. “They realize they can buy three rental properties here for the price of one in San Francisco.”
“It’s a side hustle for some and a retirement plan for others.”
For the most part, Redfin’s searches align with data from moving companies but with some notable exceptions.
Last year, for instance, United Van Lines said the top two states their customers moved to were Vermont and South Dakota. The states their customers moved from were the expected ones of N.J., N.Y., Ill., Calif., and Conn.
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