Popular second-home destinations including the New Jersey shore, Cape Cod, Lake Tahoe, Palm Springs and Bend, Ore. are increasingly becoming full-time residences for homebuyers who have the luxury of working remotely, according to a new report from Redfin.
Redfin said its analysis is based on year-over-year change in home prices, home sales, the share of homes that sold above their list price, the speed of home sales and Redfin.com searches.
According to the report, El Dorado County, Calif., a region spanning from the eastern outskirts of Sacramento to the southern half of Lake Tahoe, topped the list of second-home destinations becoming full-time residences, while the adjacent Placer County made the top 10 as well. Riverside County, Calif., which is home to the desert resort city of Palm Springs, also ranked in the top 10.
Deschutes County, Ore. about four hours southeast of Portland, was second on the list.
“We’ve always described Bend as a second-home town, but now we’re seeing it transition into a place where more people are living full time because they’re no longer required to go into the office. We joke that it’s becoming a `Zoom town,’” Redfin real estate agent Angelica Webb said in a release. “A lot of folks are moving to Bend without having ever stepped foot here. They’ve heard good things and want to get out of their cramped San Francisco or Seattle apartments, so they’re coming here and buying awesome, 3,000-square-foot colonial homes.”
The New Jersey shore also has become a hotspot for families looking to escape big-city life. Zillow said three of the four New Jersey counties that ranked in the top 10—Ocean County, Monmouth County and Cape May County—are on the New Jersey shore.
“I’ve never seen so many New York license plates at open houses in Monmouth County,” Redfin real estate agent Anthony Gonzalez said. “City folks are coming to New Jersey with New York salaries, and they can get quite a deal here even though competition is fierce. One of my buyers recently lost out on a house because another bidder paid $75,000 over the asking price. Who does that? New Yorkers.”
A lot of the New York transplants are from Brooklyn.
“Where in Brooklyn can you find anything for $500,000? Nowhere,” Gonzalez said. “New York folks are coming to Jersey for a year or two, buying a house on the water and working from home at the Jersey Shore.”