Full content here

DALLAS – According to a recent CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) study, relocations from San Francisco to Texas and Florida jumped by 32% and 46%, respectively.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated migration across the United States in 2020 compared to 2019 but particularly from large, urban areas like San Francisco and New York, to Sunbelt Metro cities like Austin, Dallas and Charlotte.

“Affordability is a major driver of movement between the high-cost coastal markets and Sun Belt cities,” says CBRE Director of Research Eric Willett, but anecdotal evidence suggests that some of those who left cities may return when the pandemic is over.

Moves from the San Francisco metro area to Florida increased 46.2% from 2,823 moves in 2019 to 4,126 in 2020. The Miami metro area saw a 49.4% increase in San Francisco transplants from 1,190 moves in 2019 to 1,778 in 2020.

CBRE noted that “young, affluent, and highly educated individuals” led the majority of moves out of urban areas, in part due to the fact that most hold jobs that can be conducted remotely.

Meanwhile, median single-family home prices in Florida increased 16% from 2019 to $314,900 in 2020, according to data from the Florida Realtors Research Department.

Tech executives including Palantir Chairman Peter Thiel and former PayPal executive Keith Rabois recently moved to Miami as the city’s mayor, Francis Suarez, attempts to court Big Tech players to South Florida. Suarez nicknamed Miami “the Capital of Crypto” and “the Capital of Capital” in two separate tweets on April 6.