New Report Shows Less Appetite to Leave Cities Than Many Predicted

• July 21st 2020

by Nena Perry-Brown

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While there has been speculation that the pandemic will motivate people to move from densely-populated areas in order to avoid being in close contact with others (and to take advantage of remote work), a new study casts doubt on that assumption.

A report from apartment rental site ApartmentList states that people were searching for a new city to live in more during the second quarter of the year (post-COVID state of emergency declarations) than during the first quarter, up to 78% from 76%. Searches fell for those looking to move to cities that are less dense than or have similar density to where they currently live. 

For DC residents, 30.5% searched for places to live in the metro area's suburbs during the second quarter of the year, down from 33.5% in the first quarter. There was also an uptick in those searching from outside the metro area looking to move to DC, up to nearly 51% from 42.3%.

However, about a third of DC residents using the site in the second quarter were searching for somewhere to live outside of the metro area, an increase from 31.3% before the pandemic. Of those looking to leave the metro area, the share looking to move to a less-dense city dropped from 59% to 54% quarter-over-quarter, and the share looking to move to a similarly-dense city increased from 40% to 45%. 

The study uses data from searches on ApartmentList between January and June 2020.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/report-shows-less-appetite-to-abandon-cities-than-many-predicted/17093.