People Are Moving Here for the Location, Not the Jobs

People are moving to Los Angeles for the location first, according to new data from Apartment List. The report shows that 58.3% of people moving to the market are moving without securing a job first. Los Angeles is one of the top location-first markets in the US, and one of the only expensive markets at the top of the list. Las Vegas, tops the US for location-first moves, followed by Phoenix, Portland and San Diego. Pricier markets, like Washington DC, San Jose and Boston, on the other hand, see more movers securing jobs first. We sat down with Sydney Bennet, senior research associate at Apartment List, to talk about this trend and how it is impacting the real estate market.

GlobeSt.com: Why does Los Angeles see so many location-first movers?

Sydney Bennet: L.A. is unique in that you have film and entertainment industries. In other more expensive metros, you have a lot of the job-first movers, but I think the nature of the industries that a lot of people are perusing in Los Angeles are location-specific. You need to move to L.A. is you want to be in those fields, and you need to be on the ground to get those jobs. L.A. is a bit of an exception compared to other major cities for that reason. New York is in a similar ballpark there. An engineer, for example, has more options. A person in that field could move to Boston or New York or San Francisco. A lot of the job-first movers in L.A. are people that are in industries that are available in more places.