People who live in Los Angeles like to talk about leaving L.A., so where would they go?
Plenty of people who do leave the L.A. are heading to Bakersfield, according to the Bakersfield Californian.
One in three people searching for property in the central California city were searching from the L.A. area, Zumper data shows. People searching from Sacramento were second on the list, but they made up just one in 20 people searching for Bakersfield properties.
In the first five months of the year, the central California city was the second-leading destination for outbound L.A. residents behind San Diego. The coronavirus pandemic could be heightening interest among L.A. residents to look beyond L.A.
Companies across the state are allowing employees to permanently work from home, meaning they don’t have to limit their home searches to high-priced job centers like the Silicon Valley and L.A.
Bakersfield-area agent Sheri Anthes said all three of her most recent L.A.-based clients who bought homes in Bakersfield had recently found out they could work from home.
Bakersfield agent and president of the California Association of Realtors, Jeanne Radsick, said Angelenos are searching for value in Bakersfield.
“These guys are paying $900,000 for a 1,200-square-foot house [in L.A.] that was built in the ’40s and the ’50s,” she said, adding that comparable properties could be found for less than a third of that price in Bakersfield. [Bakersfield.com] — Dennis Lynch