Bay Area's Comings, Goings

What once was old is new again in the Bay Area: greater numbers of these Californians are heading inland, swapping more affordable housing for greater commute times.

A new study by Issi Romem, chief economist at BuildZoom and fellow at the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at Berkeley, along with Terner Center colleague Elizabeth Kneebone examines whether this trend's resurgence is a sign of market health or weakness, and assesses income levels of both in- and out-migrants in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Romem says that domestic migration is healthy for housing, “I want to say that [the coastal exodus] makes the area less inclusive, but at the same time, immigrants from outside the city see the city as a gateway.”

A decade ago, the communities inland from Los Angeles became the poster children of the housing bubble. As real estate agents urged clients to “drive until you qualify,” the communities of Riverside County filled with eager house-buyers who weren’t afraid of 90-minute commutes – each way. Then the economy crashed, jobs dried up, the loosey-goosey mortgages people had relied on to finance their purchases stopped cooperating, and the exurbs emptied out.

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