Americans Are Fleeing Los Angeles More Than Anywhere Else for First Time

Los Angeles is no longer a destination. Instead, people are fleeing the metro in droves, according to a new Redfin report.

Throughout November, nearly 24 percent of American homebuyers were looking to move to a new metro area, the real estate brokerage found. However, Los Angeles was not at the top of the list, instead becoming the area residents were most likely to move away from.

"That marks the first time on record it has been the number one place homebuyers are leaving, and the first time in over two years the Bay Area has dropped out of the number one spot," Redfin said.

Initially, Americans started fleeing both California areas when remote work became standard during the COVID-19 pandemic. No longer tied to cities with high costs of living, many Americans settled down into new and more affordable locations.

Behind Los Angeles in terms of top locations Americans left in November were San Francisco, New York City, Washington, D.C., Seattle, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit and Denver.

All 10 cities have historically boasted large populations and expensive housing.

While Los Angeles saw 26,100 residents leave, even smaller cities like Denver saw a hefty 2,000 people say goodbye.

In Los Angeles, specifically, residents are at odds with high costs of city living while dealing with the most unaffordable year on record, according to the report.

Plus, California as a whole contains nearly 30 percent of the United States' homeless population, signaling a growing problem that many residents want to avoid. Many residents report rows of tents in even expensive residential areas.

"It came as no surprise to me that Los Angeles figured prominently among the cities where people are moving out," Pete Evering, the business development manager at San Diego-based Utopia Property Management, told Newsweek.

While the exodus from the Bay Area has mostly revolved around tech workers leaving the city because of remote jobs, Los Angeles has a different story, Evering said.

"What's interesting is that the outmigration from Los Angeles didn't slow down as much," Evering said. "It tells me that the outmigration trend from the city may be a more complicated one, with people motivated by a host of other factors other than remote work.

"What sticks out to me is really the affordability crisis. People are moving out simply because owning or renting a property in Los Angeles is far out of reach for most people."

While Los Angeles' median home price of $1 million, Las Vegas boasts a much smaller housing cost on average, with a median price of $411,000.

Where Are Americans Moving to?

If everyone's fleeing Los Angeles, where are they going?

According to Redfin, these cities made the top 10 list: Sacramento, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; North Port-Sarasota, Florida; Cape Coral, Florida; Salisbury, Maryland; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Orlando, Florida; Portland, Maine; Nashville, Tennessee; and Spokane, Washington.

Sacramento saw the greatest influx with 5,100, while Spokane saw 2,500 new residents in November. For Las Vegas, Nashville and Spokane, Los Angeles was the top out-of-state origin point for relocators.

According to a previous Storage Hub analysis of 2022 census data, the top five states that Americans moved out of were Alaska, New York, Illinois, California and Wyoming.

While California and New York residents experience some of the highest cost of living in the country, many companies are also setting up headquarters in states with less tax-heavy regulations.

"The verdict is still out, but it appears as though the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on domestic migration," Emily Skop, a professor of geography at the University of Colorado, said in the earlier report.

"More people are moving to less-populated counties. And while more-populated counties are experiencing less net domestic migration, it doesn't necessarily mean that a large increase of people are leaving, rather we suspect that fewer people are moving to these more densely populated areas."