Report: 15% of LA residents are house hunting in other cities

With unaffordable rents and prohibitively expensive home prices, many Los Angeles residents are investigating housing options in other cities, according to real estate website Redfin. In fact, in the third quarter of 2017, more than 15 percent of Los Angeles users searched for houses in other cities.

Redfin also reports that the number of LA-based users of the site looking at listings in other areas was higher than the number of users everywhere else house hunting in LA. Between July and September, only San Francisco and New York had a higher ratio of residents looking elsewhere versus non-locals seeking to move in.

Where are Angelenos thinking about relocating? Home searches suggest LA residents are overwhelmingly gravitating south to San Diego. More than one-quarter of searches outside the LA area were for homes there; the next-most popular destinations were Las Vegas, the Bay Area, Seattle, and Phoenix.

The curiosity of LA residents with some of those cities appears to be mutual. Of Redfin users searching for Los Angeles homes from outside of the city, 20.2 percent were in the Bay Area, 17.6 percent were in San Diego, and 6.7 percent were in Seattle. Another 9.1 percent were in New York, where more than a third of users looked for housing outside the city during the last quarter.

Redfin’s analysis found that there was a noticeable correlation between the rate of construction in a city and user interest in that area.

All but two of the 10 cities attracting the highest percentage of searches from both local and outside users permitted at least 10 units of housing per 10,000 residents between July and September. In Los Angeles, just 5.7 units per 10,000 residents were permitted during that time.

• Top Migration Destinations Include Nation’s Most Active Metros for Residential Construction [Redfin]
• Record high home prices staying put in LA County [Curbed LA]
• Report: 58% of LA tenants are spending too much on rent [Curbed LA]