{"id":50963,"date":"2016-06-23T04:00:12","date_gmt":"2016-06-23T11:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redfindevelop.wpengine.com\/blog\/?p=50963"},"modified":"2020-10-03T11:32:39","modified_gmt":"2020-10-03T18:32:39","slug":"people-are-still-fleeing-the-bay-area-but-the-places-theyre-moving-to-have-changed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.redfin.com\/news\/people-are-still-fleeing-the-bay-area-but-the-places-theyre-moving-to-have-changed\/","title":{"rendered":"People Are Still Leaving the Bay Area\u2014But The Places They\u2019re Moving to Have Changed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year, <\/span>Redfin discovered<\/span><\/a> that about one in four people who were searching on Redfin from the San Francisco Bay Area were looking for homes in other parts of the country. That was up from about one in seven in 2011, having increased consistently over the four years. As of this spring, the portion of Bay Area buyers looking to move has leveled off, but what\u2019s changed is where they\u2019re looking to go. Most notably, Seattle has become a less popular destination, while \u201cother\u201d cities, which include Washington, D.C., Austin, Denver, and Boston at the top of the list, have become more common havens for those leaving\u00a0the Bay Area.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Bay<\/figure>\n

This outward migration is almost certainly due to the growing cost of housing in the Bay Area. As of May this year, the median home sale price in the San Francisco<\/span><\/a> metro area was $1.2 million. The neighboring metros, <\/span>San Jose<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Oakland<\/span><\/a>, are also among the most expensive housing markets in the country at $930,000 and $650,000 as of last month.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Digital Diaspora<\/span><\/h3>\n

This makes other similar West Coast metros such as <\/span>Seattle<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Portland<\/span><\/a> increasingly attractive, given that their average homes cost half what they would in the Bay Area. But the percentage of Bay Area-based searches for homes in Seattle fell by 45 percent to just 2.8 percent from 5.1 percent last Spring. <\/span><\/p>\n

Seattle Redfin agent <\/span>Daniel Burton<\/span><\/a> notes that while searches may be down, he is still working with many buyers from the Bay Area who now live in Seattle.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s quite common for people to begin home searches a year or so before they buy to test the waters and get settled financially, and in their new jobs and cities,\u201d said Burton. \u201cWe\u2019re working quite a bit with this second wave of Bay Area homebuyers<\/span>\u2014<\/span>people who searched for Seattle homes while still in the Bay Area and decided to rent for a year or two after moving, and are now entering the market to buy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Seattle has been <\/span>adding a lot of tech jobs<\/span><\/a> the last couple years, giving rise to a large tech migration. However, there have been <\/span>mixed feelings<\/span><\/a> about the city\u2019s growth. <\/span><\/p>\n

This influx of new jobs has brought many benefits to Seattle\u2019s economy. Yet, over the same period <\/span>Seattle has grown more unequal<\/span><\/a>, with the portion of families\u2019 incomes at the high and low ends increasing and those in the middle-income range decreasing. <\/span><\/p>\n

New homes are being built in Seattle to accommodate some of this growth, but the majority are higher-end homes at expensive price points. This has been a trend for years now. In 2010, the average new construction condo cost 50 percent more than the average existing ones. In 2015, new condos cost more than twice as much as existing condos.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sale<\/figure>\n

While fewer people are looking in Seattle this year than last, the proportion of people searching within the Bay Area remained relatively stable. So where did these searches go? Mostly to other growing and still affordable tech hubs like <\/span>D.C.<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Austin<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Denver<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Boston<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Other Silicon Valleys<\/span><\/h3>\n

Tech jobs are very fluid as software companies can move employees from, say, San Francisco to Austin, much more easily than a manufacturing plant or retail warehouse would be able to relocate their operations. This also allows tech workers to adapt quickly to where the jobs are located. <\/span><\/p>\n

Although jobs in technology total only <\/span>3.9 million<\/span><\/a> (less than 3 percent of all U.S. workers), they can have large impacts on their cities. The growth of tech jobs in Seattle has brought population changes that <\/span>outpaced the supply of housing<\/span><\/a>. Many of these migrants to Seattle are young, educated and very well paid\u2013shifting the demand for housing. This, in turn, pushed up housing prices for the whole area. <\/span><\/p>\n

Zoning regulations holding back the supply of housing growth, however, may be <\/span>more to blame<\/span><\/a> than the new wealth from tech growth. This is why some new tech hubs are not destined for the same fate as Silicon Valley. A growing and vibrant economy is a great thing, so long as the supply of new housing units meets this influx of workers.<\/span><\/p>\n