Whether it’s traffic, the lack of affordable housing, high taxes or all of the above, a growing number of Bay Area homeowners are cashing in and moving out.

They are trying to escape the high cost living here, according to Windemere Silicon Valley President Myron Von Raesfeld.

“That quality of life that was once really prevalent here in the Bay Area for everybody has slowly over time passed up the lower and middle-class people and kinda pushed them out,” Von Raesfeld said.

Von Raesfeld has found a niche, advising people who are moving on.

He recently helped the owners of a 40-year old bungalow in Santa Clara relocate to Texas where they bought a brand new home about 40 miles outside of Austin.

Michelle and Michael Rakow ended up being able to sell their house, pay it off and a new house in a place where the cost of living is far less expensive.

A new study by Redfin shows about 24-percent of online searches in the Bay Area are looking for a home out of state.

Among the most popular destinations are Sacramento, Portland, Seattle, Austin and other places with strong economies and lower home prices.

“There’s a lot of other great places much like Silicon Valley that have a lot of the same type of opportunities that we had here at one time for a whole lot lower cost to live in,” Von Raesfeld said.

Von Raesfeld says 12 consecutive clients have all moved out of state.

He just sold his brother’s Santa Clara home who is headed for Anthem, Arizona.

“With the economics the way it is we can sell our house for a good price, pay it all off, pay the capital gains and we’ll be able to move to Arizona and purchase a house for cash,” Don Von Raesfeld said.

With the median-priced home in the 9-county region at $775,000 dollars and over a million dollars in San Jose, Joint Venture Silicon Valley found that slightly more people are moving out than moving in.

The Rakows sold their small but cozy 3-bedroom, 2-bath, 12-hundred square foot home on Murguia Avenue for $1,265,000.

Their new home is a 5-bedroom, 3 and a half bath, 28-hundred square foot home on a quarter acre with a creek out back. They paid a mere $230,000.

There are no traffic jams and gas is under $2 a gallon.

“It just equates to less stress and more time, so we have more time to do the things we want to do,” Michelle Rakow said.

“You’d be surprised what you see out there,” Von Raesfeld said. “There might just be a place that’s almost as good as the Bay Area but certainly with a different quality of life that you might be looking for in your later years in life.”

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