San Francisco’s remote tech workers leaving for these cities
The exodus has caused an drop in rent
Americans in the technology sector, who have been working from home during the coronavirus pandemic, are starting to leave San Francisco and head to other cities in California, or other states altogether.
Rents for a one-bedroom apartment in the world’s most expensive city are down 9.2 percent year over year, an “unprecedented” drop that is much larger than what has been seen in any other major metro area, according to data from local rental site Zumper.
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Prices dropped even further in cities where the country’s biggest technology companies are headquartered. In Mountain View, California, where Google’s headquarters are located, rents fell nearly 16 percent. Prices dropped 14.1 percent in Facebook’s home, Menlo Park, while they also fell 14.3 percent in Cupertino where Apple's headquarters is located and 10.8 percent in Palo Alto.
Rent prices in another high-priced California city, Los Angeles, were down 3.6 percent by comparison.
Anthemos Georgiades, the CEO of Zumper, credited the price plunge to workers leaving the city as opportunities for remote work become more widely available. Twitter and Facebook, for example, have told employees they can work from home permanently.
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So where are San Francisco residents headed?
According to data provided to FOX Business by Zumper, the top-out of metro areas where San Francisco residents were searching to move as of April were:
- Sacramento
- Sonoma, California
- Los Angeles
- Chicago
- Seattle
- Monterey, California
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Throughout the entire U.S., the cities that are experiencing the biggest uptick in outside moving interest so far this year include Charlotte, Indianapolis, and San Antonio.
One place where people aren’t leaving? Florida. Zumper found that residents in the Sunshine State have not been migrating.
However, Florida has been receiving some new residents. There has been a significant number of people moving out of the New York City area. While some are headed for nearby suburbs, others are moving to Florida and a handful of other states in the south.