People leaving Los Angeles are moving here in record numbers

People are moving out of Los Angeles in record numbers. Their top relocation destination? Las Vegas, Nevada, according to a new study. 

Data from Redfin places Los Angeles as the second major U.S. metro area people are leaving, with 20% of local users searching elsewhere. San Francisco ranked first, with 24% of homebuyers there looking to move.  

Homebuyers are flocking to Las Vegas, which was the most popular spot for ex-Angelenos looking to move, based on Redfin search data.

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In Las Vegas, the typical home cost $410,000 in October, roughly half the price of the typical home in Los Angeles ($823,000).

In September, the median listing home price in Los Angeles was $1 million — a 5.4% increase compared with a year earlier, according to Realtor.com.

People looking to stay within California are choosing San Diego as their top destination, according to Redfin.

Nearly one-quarter (24.2%) of homebuyers nationwide looked to move to a different metro area in the third quarter, the Redfin report said. 

The study said the exodus was due primarily to finances and homebuyers prioritizing affordability. From July to September, 24.2% of homebuyers nationally looked at homes in a different metro area — a record high for Redfin.

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The average 30-year-fixed mortgage rate was 6.9% in October, up 3.83 percentage points from 3.07% one year earlier—the largest year-over-year increase during any month since 1981.

Redfin's migration analysis was based on about two million Redfin.com users who viewed for-sale homes online across more than 100 metro areas from August 2022 to October 2022. To measure the share of homebuyers looking to relocate from one metro to another, Redfin calculated the portion of overall home searchers that are migrants.