By Dana Anderson | Redfin
Of all Redfin.com users, 27.8% looked to move to another metro area in July 2020, up from 27.4% in the second quarter and 25.2% in July 2019.
The work-from-home culture stemming from the coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating the trend of migration away from expensive coastal cities to more affordable inland areas that has been going on for at least five years.
“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,” said Veronica Clyatt, a Redfin agent in Pleasanton, CA, located about 40 miles east of San Francisco. “I’ve had buyers drop out of their search in the Bay Area because they’re moving to Sacramento or Texas, and I’ve had people moving over to Pleasanton because it’s less expensive than San Francisco. 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.”
