Much has been made about the Bay Area exodus, with thousands of residents — empowered by the option to work remotely and fed up with high housing costs — moving out of the region since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Yet,our region is far from the only metro area in the U.S. experiencing similar flight from densely packed urban neighborhoods. Thousands of households abandoned neighborhoods in New York, Chicago and Boston. Many flocked to nearby suburbs, or relocated to the South and Sun Belt. But even in some of the hottest urban markets, downtown neighborhoods from Miami to Las Vegas have experienced a net drain in migration since the pandemic began while surrounding suburbs surged.
Our map of California, compiled from U.S. Postal Service change-of-address data, shows how migration trends have shifted since the start of the pandemic.
Zoom in on your home ZIP code to see how the population from household migration has changed.
In the Bay Area, the impacts of the exodus have been far from equal. Central urban hubs, like downtown San Jose and San Francisco, in particular, have seen significant flight since the start of the pandemic. Meanwhile bucolic portions of the Bay, like San Ramon or parts of Sonoma County, have seen a net increase in household migration. Experts say the exodus was particularly acute in urban centers because housing prices were exorbitantly high there.
To search for your neighborhood, enter the ZIP code in the search box, then press enter to zoom to any location within California.
SEARCH YOUR ZIP: HOW HAS THE EXODUS IMPACTED YOU?
Search your ZIP code in the search box below, or click on a ZIP code to see how many households have moved in and moved out since February 2020. If the ZIP code is red, that means more households moved out than moved in. If it’s blue, that means more households moved in. The more intense the color, the greater the change.
