New York, maybe the people don’t quite love you anymore.
According to a new report by moveBuddha, a site where people can calculate their moving costs, New York lost more residents than any other state between April 1, 2020 and July 1, 2021, according to the U.S. Census Bureau population estimates.
Over that period, the state lost 319,020 people. New York state’s population as of 2020 was 20.2 million, according to the Census Bureau.
The report also used data collected from users looking for moving options on moveBuddha’s website between January 1, 2022 and August 5, 2022. There were around 282,000 queries during this period.
New York is the fourth most-searched state to move out of this year, the company added. That’s behind New Jersey, California, and Illinois.
People are leaving for reasons that include unemployment or underemployment, skyrocketing rents, high cost of living, and high taxes, as compared to other states, moveBuddha said in the study.
People also appear to be leaving the Empire State for warmer pastures. New York to Los Angeles was the most popular search on moveBuddha. About 20% of New Yorkers looking to move were planning to head to Florida, followed by California, and Texas.
Of course, some parts of New York City are still hot. Rising rents and increasing pressure for workers to be in the office is driving demand for apartments in the city.
There’s also evidence that some people who left New York City earlier in the pandemic are coming back. And some are ready to spend on real estate. ‘Out of towners’ returning to New York (many of whom are actually returning former residents) have an average maximum housing budget of $1.3 million, while locals have budgeted an average maximum of $998, 011 for a home purchase, a recent Redfin report found.
But moveBuddha says that neighborhoods in Queens, the Bronx and Brooklyn all have more folks looking to leave, rather than move in, this year.
The report also found that four of the top 10 counties that saw a population decline between the same time period are in New York City: New York County (i.e. Manhattan), Kings County (i.e. Brooklyn), Bronx County, and Queens County.
Based on users searching on the moveBuddha site, the number of moves-out outnumbered the number of moves-in Jamaica, N.Y., Bronx, N.Y. and Staten Island, N.Y. the fastest.
In other words, for every 100 people moving out of Jamaica, only 27 people moved in. In the Bronx, that number was 36, and in Staten Island, 27.
The most popular city of origin for people moving to New York was San Francisco, moveBuddha added.
Nonetheless, there have been some gains for the Empire State: moveBuddha saw a lot more people moving in than out into Webster, N.Y., Ithaca, N.Y., and Fairport, N.Y.
The typical home price in Webster and in Fairport, or otherwise together known as Rochester, N.Y., was around $218,000, according to Zillow’s Home Value Index. Home values are up 11.2% from the previous year.
In Ithaca, a college town, the typical home is roughly $302,000, according to Zillow. Homes have grown in value by 21.3% from last year.
Got thoughts on the housing market? Write to MarketWatch reporter Aarthi Swaminathan at [email protected]
