Two-Thirds of U.S. Homebuyers and Sellers Want to Live Somewhere With Legal Abortion, Up From 40% a Year Ago - Seite 2

Nearly half (47%) prefer to live in a place where gender-affirming care for children is fully legal. That’s more than double the 21% who prefer not to live in such a place. Gender-affirming care encompasses a range of medical interventions designed to support an individual’s gender identity, including counseling and medications.

Relatedly, about one-third (34%) prefer to live somewhere that allows classroom discussion of LGBTQ topics. Just a slightly larger share (37%) take the opposite stance, preferring to live in a place that prohibits classroom discussion of LGBTQ topics.

“My husband and I moved from Tallahassee, FL to Seattle in 2017 partly because Florida’s state government was on a path to undermining protections for LGBTQ people, and we didn’t feel comfortable there outside our close circle of friends,” said Dustin Hand, a Senior Systems Administrator at Redfin. “Living in a state where the laws don’t protect you is alienating and stressful. When I went places in Florida, I typically waited for a person or business to explicitly say ‘it’s safe here’ before opening up about who I am and whom I love. Florida’s recent legislation takes an active stance against teaching people about my community and affirms my decision to live in a place where I feel protected being my authentic self.”

Fifteen percent of respondents said LGBTQ rights are an important factor in choosing where to live, a similar share that feel abortion laws are important. Three percent said LGBTQ rights are the most important factor.

Most homebuyers and sellers prefer living somewhere with strong voting-rights laws–but about 1 in 10 prefer not to

Nearly two-thirds (62%) of homebuyers and sellers would prefer living somewhere with strong voting-rights protections and/or easy vote-by-mail. Fifteen percent prefer not to live in such a place.

Fourteen percent of respondents said voting rights are important in choosing where to live, while 1% said they’re the most important factor.

All of these findings were from a national Redfin-commissioned survey of about 1,000 U.S. residents who recently bought a home or plan to buy or sell a home in the next year, fielded in August 2022. It’s compared with a Redfin survey fielded in August 2021; the 1,000 respondents to that survey moved in the 18 months prior to taking the survey. The results reported above are from a question asking homebuyers and sellers to rank their willingness to live in a place with certain state or local laws on certain political issues.