Discussions about migrating outside of the technology hub of the San Francisco Bay Area have been ongoing for years now, and it looks like it may finally be happening.
Now that companies have started allowing employees to work from anywhere, many are taking advantage of this opportunity.
For instance, Justin Thompson, who works for a data analytics firm, and his wife recently decided to move out of their apartment in the Bay Area and relocate to a three-bedroom house in Phoenix.
Just last month, Alphabet Inc. said employees will not be coming back to the office until at least the summer of 2021. Facebook also said that its employees could do the same, and expects to have a substantially remote workforce in the next few years
According to a survey conducted in mid-May of 371 Bay Area tech workers, 42% would relocate to a less expensive city if they were working remotely. Additionally, another survey from July by workplace discussion platform company Blind found that 15% of respondents had left the area since the start of the pandemic.
Although it is too early to determine the actual amount of tech workers leaving the Bay Area, it has started impacting real estate prices. For the first time in years, rents have started dropping since Zillow started tracking the city in 2014.
“The majority of techies in the Bay Area are not about to move out, but it is a significant enough minority that it’s moving the market,” said Anthemos Georgiades, Zumper CEO.
