New Yorkers are asking Google how to 'sell my house fast' after the US Northeast was blanketed with orange smog

Matthew Loh
Updated ·2 min read
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  • People in New York are searching for ways to "sell my house fast" as thick smog hits the Northeast.

  • Search interest for the term jumped 2,147% on Wednesday, according to FindStorageFast.

  • Air quality in NYC dropped to one of the world's worst levels that day due to Canadian wildfires.

Wildfire haze and red skies in New York City have residents searching for ways to get out of town — permanently.

Google searches for "sell my house fast" jumped 2,147% on Wednesday as air quality in the Big Apple became one of the worst in the world, according to an analysis by storage unit booking company FindStorageFast.

Publicly available data on Google Trends shows a spike in search interest for that phrase.

Google search data over time for "sell my house fast."
Google search data over time for "sell my house fast."Screenshot/Google Trends

New Yorkers' search interest for "sell my house" and "sell home" also quadrupled on Google on the same day, per FindStorageFast's analysis.

The term "air purifier" also saw a 2,418% surge in popularity in New York, according to the firm.

"As the housing market becomes a bigger challenge in America, it will be interesting to see if this spike translates into more listings and sales and what this may mean for the city's housing market long-term," said D'Arcy Hunter, CEO and founder of FindStorageFast, in the analysis.

Wildfires in Canada have covered the Northeast in hazardous smog that brought New York City's air quality index readings to nearly 400, making the air dangerous to breathe.

The smog became so intense that it was captured completely engulfing the Manhattan skyline in orange, giving residents a glimpse of what it's like to live in some of the most polluted cities in the world.

Cities such as New Jersey, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and Boston were also hit by a sharp decrease in air quality.

The average price of a home in New York is $648,302, up 2.7% over the last year, according to Zillow. The median rent in June is $3,650 per month in the state, an increase of around $350 from the same month last year, per the company's statistics.

Read the original article on Insider