With summertime fast approaching, it won’t be long until we’re enjoying those quintessential summer moments. Eating ice cream on a sweltering day, finding a body of water to lay by while we work on our tan, and of course the most classic of summer moves… moving?
That’s right, the summer is actually prime moving time, where people of all ages, from recent grads to retirees decide to pick up their roots and put down new ones.
While housing numbers are still firming up for the usually busy Spring selling season, they’re expected to come in trending slightly downward. Perhaps we’ll see a Summer rebound with all these movers on the move.
The next few months are predicted to be one of the busiest moving seasons in recent memory. But why? Well, the economy is finally enjoying more growth and stability and the resultant healthy job market has people relocating to newer job markets with more affordable living.
What’s less easy to determine is where these residents are moving to and from. Census data is notoriously slow and online search analytics can be random and fickle. But by combining cross-metro search traffic from Realtor.com with cross-metro moving contracts from their sister site Moving.com, the minds behind this study found a pretty ingenious way of determing where movers are moving.
Take a look at the telling map above. Yes, most of the moving activity seems focused on the Eastern Seaboard and New York City in particular. That makes sense due to population density. So Realtor.com decided to go a step further, they adjusted not only for a city’s size but found the ratio of inbound to outbound moves to come up with the most and least desirable cities.
Let’s start our further examination by looking into our homestate’s dubious honor. California was the only state with more than one city losing residents in droves. In fact, it actually has three: San Jose, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
And no wonder. Look no further than the staggering median home prices in the bay area. San Jose and San Francisco are $983,900 and $859,000 respectively. That’s more than twice the median home price in NYC. And for those that may be currently searching for a home, you’re probably well aware that “median” home price often feels like a short measuring stick, since it includes condos, foreclosures and homes in major disrepair or in undesirable areas in calculations.
While Los Angeles is in a housing shortage and prices continue to rise in search of a ceiling, the overall population of the city proper has actually been trending downwards. Though many of those leaving don’t go far. The San Fernando Valley and neighboring areas like Riverside and Orange County continue to grow.
And sure less people in Los Angeles doesn’t seem like such a bad idea. Anyone who has enjoyed a holiday weekend in LA where you can zip from one side of town to the other in that mythical “20 minutes to everywhere” commute, dreams of a permanent change.
But if a large city sees a steady decline in population over a long enough period of time, dwindling city tax revenues lead to massive problems. See Detroit comma Michigan. No one is saying that Los Angeles is anywhere near such a turning point. But long term, affordable housing is adamant to a healthy metropolis.
Now that we’ve covered what’s driving these people to move, where are people looking to call home next? Surprisingly, Angelenos are heading to Las Vegas and San Franciscans are moving anywhere inland from the Bay Area or even to LA in search of cheaper housing.
The rest of the country seems to be moving to Florida, Texas, or other Southern ciies. All of those areas have multiple popular moving destinations buoyed by booming tech sectors and welcoming median home pricing.
And what real estate article would be complete these days without a shoutout to the Millennials. Here’s a chart of where they’re moving, though you’ll find it most devoid of the top Hipster destinations that many might expect to see on this list.
If you’re interested in buying or selling a Luxury Home in Los Angeles, please contact us now at 323-829-8811 or email Susan Andrews at susan@luxurylahomes.com.
Contact us anytime if you ever wonder “What’s my home worth”? Or visit HollywoodHillsValue.com for a free no obligation home valuation.