Location used to be everything in real estate, but now it’s local laws that appear to be influencing where people want to buy homes, according to a new survey.
One-third of real-estate agents say they have worked with buyers who moved over the last 12 months mainly because of state or local laws or politics, according to a new first-of-its-kind survey of 500 real-estate agents by brokerage Redfin
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Redfin agents say they’ve worked with clients who have wanted to move either to more liberal parts of the country or to more conservative areas. These moves have been influenced by gun laws, reproductive-rights laws and tax policies, the agents said.
“State and local laws and politics have also become increasingly important as the nation gets more polarized, with Democrats and Republicans drifting further apart on issues like climate, immigration and education,” Redfin said in the report.
With the U.S. Supreme Court striking down the constitutional protection for a woman’s right to have an abortion in 2022 and states diverging on gun policies, many house hunters are rethinking where they would prefer to live. The Redfin survey looked at home buyers moving within the U.S. and not at people leaving the country.
“State laws differ on partisan issues like abortion and gun control, with many Americans reporting they would prefer to live in a place with laws that align with their own views,” the report noted. “On a similar note, many Americans prefer living in a place where their neighbors have similar political views.”
The Redfin survey only captured responses from real-estate agents about the clients that they worked with. It does not mean that one-third of U.S. home buyers actually moved because of politics or local laws.
Being able to afford to buy a home in the area where they currently live and living close to family and work “often outweigh” political preferences or local laws when people are choosing where they want to live, Redfin added.
But with more people having the flexibility to work remotely, home buyers are able to make decisions about where they live based on political preferences and local laws, the report said.
“A record share of homebuyers relocated to a different metro area in 2023. Some of the most common migration routes for homebuyers last year were from blue states to red or purple states: San Francisco to Austin; Seattle to Phoenix; New York to Orlando and other parts of Florida,” the report stated. Those are predominantly moves to cities where homes are more affordable.
One agent with Redfin said that he had worked with a family who left New York for Florida but ended up coming back last year “because they preferred to live in a state with stricter gun laws.”
Another Redfin agent, Austin-based, Andrew Vallejo, said he had experienced a similar trend.
“I know at least 10 people who have moved away from Texas in the last year, mainly because they don’t agree with state laws,” Vallejo said. “They all moved to the West Coast, to blue places where the policies align better with their personal views, specifically when it comes to women’s reproductive rights and LGBTQ rights.”
At the same time, many people were moving from blue states to red states, Redfin noted, based on what the brokerage had heard from agents.
“Many conservative states have policies that attract business-minded residents, like lower taxes and fewer restrictions on companies,” the company said in the report.
“Other people leave blue states for red states to live near people with similar views; for instance, this couple moved from California to Idaho partly because they felt freedom to display a ‘Thin Blue Line’ banner,” the report said, referring to a banner expressing support for the police.
From the archives (June 2022): ‘I’ll do anything to keep my family together’: Trans kids’ parents are draining their savings to flee conservative states
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