San Francisco, New York, and LA top the list of cities Americans are flocking away from, according to a report
San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles top the list of areas that Americans want to leave, according to a new report by Redfin.
The real-estate company's list of the top ten metro areas that people are searching to move from includes the country's biggest cities, suggesting that many are looking to leave the hustle and bustle — and high taxes and living costs — behind because of shifts in flexible working brought about by the pandemic.
"Expensive coastal job centers typically top the list of places people are leaving," Redfin wrote in the report. "That trend became more pronounced in recent years as remote work allowed homebuyers to relocate to more affordable areas."
The top ten metro areas Americans are looking to relocate from, according to Redfin, are:
1. San Francisco, California
2. New York City, New York
3. Los Angeles, California
4. Washington, D.C.
5. Chicago, Illinois
6. Boston, Massachusetts
7. Seattle, Washington
8. Denver, Colorado
9. Hartford, Connecticut
10. Portland, Oregon
The three biggest cities in the US all feature on the list. New York City, which comes in second place on Redfin's list, is the US' most populous city, with around 8.5 million residents in July 2021, per US Census Bureau estimates. The country's next biggest cities are Los Angeles, with an estimated population of 3.8 million, and Chicago, at 2.7 million, per US Census Bureau data.
Apart from Hartford, all the cities on Redfin's list of metro areas that residents are most looking to leave featured on the US Census Bureau's list of 30 most populous cities as of July 2021.
Redfin based its findings on how many more of users based in these areas looked at listings between December and February for properties in a different area than the number of people looking to move to that area. The data excludes rental listings and only includes people looking to buy homes.
Census data shows that even though California's population is still rising each decade, the rate of growth has drastically decreased, and more recent estimates suggest it has been declining since the pandemic started. New York City's population, meanwhile, has been steadily declining since 2016.
Redfin's data shows that, for people in San Francisco looking at listings outside of the metro area, Sacramento was the most popular choice, while Seattle was the most looked-at city among people looking to leave California completely. For people considering leaving New York City, Miami was the most popular city, while for Los Angeles this was Las Vegas.
Overall, Miami is the metro area that most homebuyers are looking to move to, per Redfin's report, followed by Phoenix and Las Vegas. Five Florida cities make up the top ten, as well as two in Texas. The list of cities Americans are looking to leave is more diverse, with nine states featured.