Half of homebuyers want to live in a place where abortion is legal: survey

Adam Barnes
·2 min read
30

Story at a glance

  • Close to one-in-five respondents said they will only live in a place where it is legal.

  • The percentage of sellers and buyers who would live exclusively in a place with legal abortion rose by 7 percent from last year.

  • Yet 11 percent of those surveyed said they would not live in a place where abortion is legal.

Half of homebuyers and sellers in the U.S. want to live in a place where abortion is legal following the Supreme Court’s decision in June, giving the power to ban the procedure to the states.

A new survey conducted by the real estate firm Redfin found that 52 percent of both sellers and buyers prefer to live in a state with legal abortion, and close to one-in-five respondents said they will only live in a place where it is legal. Both measures increased from the previous year’s survey.

The percentage of sellers and buyers who would live exclusively in a place with legal abortion rose by 7 percent from last year, while those who prefer to live in this type of place increased by 5 percent.

“A lot of homebuyers are moving to Arizona because they like the politics here and/or don’t like the politics where they’re coming from,” Heather Mahmood-Corley, a Redfin agent in Phoenix, Arizona, said in a media release.

Still, 11 percent of those surveyed said they would not live in a place where abortion is legal, down 4 percent from last year. The percentage of respondents who prefer not to live in such a place is also down from a year earlier at 12 percent.

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Since the Supreme Court’s decision, at least 12 states, including Tennessee, Texas and Idaho, have implemented abortion restrictions and bans via trigger laws. Texas previously passed a law in 2021, banning the procedure after six weeks. But the new law, which went into effect in August, increases the penalty for anyone who provides or attempts an abortion.

The Redfin-commissioned survey measured the responses of close to 1,000 U.S. residents who recently bought a home or plan to buy or sell a home in the coming year.

Other popular issues for prospective homebuyers and sellers surveyed were cost of living, crime and safety and home affordability.

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