Portland Has Become Less Popular for Bay Area Transplants

Seattle and Portland are out. Austin and Boston are in.

Startup money is pouring into Portland. But that doesn't mean the city is becoming a tech Mecca—at least, not for people from the San Francisco Bay Area.

Last year, Redfin reported that one in four San Franciscans on its site were looking for homes in other parts of the country. That was up from one in seven just four years before.

This hasn't changed. But the places they're looking has.

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Searches for homes in Seattle and Portland dropped significantly last year (image from Redfin.com) Searches for homes in Seattle and Portland dropped significantly last year (image from Redfin.com)

Searches for homes in Portland quintupled in 2015. In Seattle, it quadrupled.

But this year, Seattle has seen a 45 percent drop, and Portland isn't far behind. Sacramento and Southern California have seen slight drops, while an entire section that Redfin titles "Other" has seen a 49 percent growth.

Turns out, "Other" includes cities like Austin, Boston, Denver and Washington D.C., which are growing tech hubs.

Though Portland's $337,000 median home price is comparable to Austin ($286,000), Denver ($345,000) and Boston ($360,000), there are fewer tech jobs here than those cities. Austin has almost double the tech jobs Portland has.

Related: Portland is Enticed by a Texas-Sized Homeless Shelter.

As for Seattle, Redfin attributes to the drop to the growth of its tech industry, which has outpaced the city's affordable housing supply.

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