"Exploring The US In A Minivan" 23% Of Professionals Have Relocated Out Of Major cities

"Exploring The US In A Minivan" 23% Of Professionals Have Relocated Out Of Major cities

The “Silicon Valley Exodus” has been a prominent discussion for months. Back in May, Blind asked tech professionals, “If you had a choice to WFH as much as you would like, would you consider relocating?” The survey was opened to the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, and Seattle Area. Through these results, we learned that 66% of professionals on Blind would consider relocating according to the results (Download full report here: The Permanent relocation.)

This week, we followed up to see where that 66% of professionals currently are.

We asked 6,135 professionals between 1/29/21-2/08/21:

  1. Since WFH began, have you relocated out of a major city?
  2. Where did you move away from:
  3. Where did you move to:

Key learnings:

  • Since WFH began, 23% of professionals have relocated out of a major city.
    • 19% of professionals responded, “not yet.”
    • 39% of Bloomberg professionals have relocated out of a major city
    • 35% of Linkedin professionals have relocated out of a major city
    • 37% of Twitter professionals have relocated out of a major city
  • Of the 23% of professionals that have relocated out of a major city: 
    • 47% moved away from the SF/ Bay Area
    • 14% moved away from NYC
    • 16% moved away from Seattle
    • 22% moved away to “other cities,” which included:
      • Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, Raleigh, Boston, and Dallas
  • Of the 23% of professionals that have relocated out of a major city: 
    • 7% moved to Miami
    • 15% moved to Austin
    • 9% moved to Seattle
    • 4% moved to Arizona 
    • 66% moved to “other cities,” which included:
      • Atlanta, Denver, Nashville, Honolulu, and “exploring the US in a minivan while WFH from Airbnb.”

See the data here.

In September Blind partnered with ROOM8, a popular app optimizing co-living through roommate-matching and apartment-search services, to run a similar survey to gauging “Tech Exodus” in 6 major US cities. The Survey asked:

  1. Have you recently moved outside the metropolitan area you reside in? 
  2. What is your employer’s attitude toward permanent remote working? 
  3. If you have moved recently, are you planning to move back where you are closer to work? (If so, when)
  4. Are you looking for roommates or co-living solutions? 

The survey ran in the Bay Area, NYC, and Seattle, LA, Chicago, and Austin on 9/13-9/21. Here are some Key Learnings: 

  • 35% of LA survey respondents have recently moved outside the metropolitan area
    • 23% of NYC survey respondents have recently moved outside the metropolitan area
  • Only 18% of Bay Area survey respondents have recently moved outside the metropolitan area
  • 31% of Chicago survey respondents say their employer’s attitude toward permanent remote working “allows permanent” remote work
  • 19% of Bay Area survey respondents say their employer’s attitude toward permanent remote working “allows permanent” remote work
  • 15% of LA survey respondents say their employer’s attitude toward permanent remote working “allows permanent” remote work
  • 9% of Settle survey respondents say they are planning to move back within a year
    • 7% of Bay Area survey respondents say they are planning to move back within a year
    • 91% of  Bay Area survey respondents say they are not looking for roommates or co-living solutions.
  • 92% of  Austin survey respondents say they are not looking for roommates or co-living solutions.

You can see the report highlighting the overall responses here. 

The departures of companies like Tesla, Oracle, and HPE have many people questioning the future of Silicon Valley and California as a tech hub. And while only 23% of professionals have relocated to date, it’s still certainly a subject on tech CEOs’ minds as they ponder a post-pandemic future.