The signs are everywhere – the super-frenzy is building. I spoke with a friend in Phoenix yesterday who said the cheaper homes for sale there are flying off the market in 1-2 days:
While restrictions are driving people out California, newfound freedom is allowing others to come to San Diego and set roots.
San Marcos resident Logan Lidster is 99% sure his family will be moving to Texas despite living for years in San Diego.
With two kids planning to make the jump to the Lone Star State, Lidster said he had been considering an exit out of California for a while. But then COVID-19 advanced the possibility, and the Lidsters realized his family needed to become more self-sufficient.
“We’ve got a little bit of property here, but everything from regulations of what we can do with our homeowners’ association to what things we’re allowed to grow, there’s so much red tape,” Lidster explained. The pandemic brought things full circle for the Lidsters. In a time when things are difficult to access as is, he’s seen a need to grow his own crops and raise his own chickens in preparation for what might lie ahead.
And Lidster isn’t the only one turning his eye beyond the Golden State. Marie Bailey, a real estate agent in Texas, said her business has tripled since the pandemic hit, citing sales specifically tied to Californians on their way out.
The unstable job market in California brought on by the pandemic has played a part in the exodus, Bailey said. “It has exacerbated the politics so lots of companies have been shut down,” Bailey said. “People are unhappy with how California is handling it.”
And in San Diego, a similar migration pattern is forming. Chris Hasvold, a broker at Coldwell Banker Village Properties, said he’s seeing people make the dash out of California for more affordable locations.
“We’re seeing people leaving in droves,” Hasvold said. “They’re going to the most common places…that I’m working with are Florida, Arizona, Idaho, Texas, and Tennessee.”
But Hasvold said he’s not just witnessing movement out of California. He’s also seeing people pour into Northern San Diego. The shift to remote working has given them the flexibility to live where they want, Hasvold said.
“They just are not restricted to a certain area now because they can work remotely and so that’s opened up a whole new world for people,” Hasvold explained.
Hasvold said some of his clients desire more of a return to nature where they can have more land and space.
Jim, where are you seeing buyers coming from? The last several years looks like mostly LA and OC according to tax migration data. Is that even more so now?