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Affordability isn’t the only thing weighing on Americans’ minds this summer, according to a Redfin survey published on Tuesday.
The Seattle-based online brokerage’s survey of more than 5,000 New York, California, Texas and Florida residents revealed civil rights access is an important part of homebuyers’ and renters’ housing decisions. Roughly half of respondents in California (53.2%) and New York (53.2%), and roughly 40 percent of respondents in Texas (37.4%) and Florida (42.4%) said they’d rather live in a state with abortion access.
Pregnant people in California and New York can get an abortion before they reach the stage of pregnancy when a fetus has developed enough that it can survive outside the uterus with medical help. Meanwhile, pregnant people in Texas can get an abortion before six weeks and pregnant people in Florida can get an abortion before the 15-week mark (Florida is currently in the process of reducing the timeline to six weeks).
Although a solid contingent of Texas and Florida residents would rather live in a state with abortion access, the survey results revealed affordability (20%) still edges out civil rights (12%) when it comes to choosing where to live by 8 percentage points.
Daryl Fairweather
“Deciding where to live is a compromise, and the housing affordability crisis in many parts of the country means many homebuyers must compromise certain preferences for affordability,” Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather said in a written statement. “Even though many parts of Florida and Texas have attracted an influx of migrants who have pushed up prices over the last few years, homes there are far less expensive than a coastal city.”
“A person who identifies with the local policies of a place like Seattle or San Francisco may live in a place like Dallas simply because it’s what they can afford,” she added.
In the two years leading up to the pandemic, Florida and Texas gained more residents than any other state. That migration pattern intensified in 2020 and 2021, Redfin said, as remote working options enabled professionals along the coasts to take advantage of more affordable home prices. The median home in Miami ($515K) is 36 percent cheaper than the median home in New York ($705K). Meanwhile, the median home in Dallas ($443K) is 54 percent cheaper than the median home in Los Angeles ($975K).
Fairweather noted the recent rash of stringent anti-abortion laws happened after the early-pandemic buyer reshuffling. But the rise in rents, home prices and mortgage rates makes it difficult for buyers to make another move in such a short time period.
“For some people who moved to a place like Tampa or Dallas in 2019 or 2020 to get a more affordable home, a part of them may now wish they lived somewhere that aligns better with their views on abortion since its legality is now in the hands of each individual state,” she said. “But it’s not that simple.”
“They probably still appreciate the relatively low cost of living, and may not be able to afford to move to a different state,” she added. “Beyond finances, many are entrenched in their jobs, their kids’ school and their communities, and those things make it hard to leave.”
In addition to abortion access, a strong contingent of respondents said they’d prefer to live in a state that supports LGBTQ+ rights and gender-affirming care.
Forty-five percent of Californians said they’d rather live in a state that supports gender-affirming care. New Yorkers and Floridians were neck-in-neck in their opinion on the topic, with roughly 40 percent supporting access to transition surgeries, hormone therapies, and other treatments. Thirty-seven percent of Texans said they’d rather live in a state with gender-affirming care — 8 percentage points more than the share of Texas who said they don’t.
The trends for each state held strong when asked about LGBTQ-friendly classroom instruction, with a greater share of respondents saying they’d rather live in a state that allows teachers to talk about LGBTQ topics in school.
Since moving isn’t an option for many residents, Fairweather said they’re finding like-minded friends and support systems in their cities.
“Still, people often self-sort into areas where their neighbors have similar social and political views,” she said. “Liberal people who live in Texas or Florida may choose a home in a neighborhood where they see flags that speak to their beliefs, for example.”
