Americans are paying thousands to flee states over politics — but experts say using specialized agencies is not worth it

Americans are adding one more reason to move to another city or state. Now it’s not just expenses, schools, public safety and careers — it’s politics, too.

Take Channing Muller, a public relations professional and founder at Chicago-based DCM Communications. Muller said she had multiple reasons to move to the Windy City, but it was a public policy issue that sealed the deal.

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“I was living in Tennessee when Roe versus Wade got overturned, and the reaction around me was like a cold shot of water to the face,” Muller told Moneywise. “I knew it was a conservative state, but the overwhelming number of celebrations for women losing access to a medical procedure was something I could no longer look past.”

To Muller, the discourse had become overwhelmingly around religious beliefs rather than access to medical care for women. But it wasn’t the only hot-button political issue.

“That followed with more news of school shootings and Tennessee’s solution to simply arm teachers,” Muller noted. “Even though I didn’t have children, I could not wrap my head around the idea that the solution to shootings in schools was to bring in more guns.”

Muller said she’d been considering a move to a larger city for a few months, but these two things made it clear.

“Going forward, being within Tennessee would not be an option for me,” she said.

Muller visited Chicago when she ran the marathon in 2022 and absolutely loved it.

“But before I made any decisions about whether that was the place for me to go, I did my research on Illinois laws and representatives,” she added. “I needed to know that I’d be moving to a place where the local and state government recognize me, a woman, as a person capable of making her own decisions and that her life was worth protecting. When I saw there was alignment on those points, I knew I was moving in the right direction.”

And it’s not only a matter of blue voters fleeing red states. It’s occurring the other way around, as well.

“The majority of client calls I receive are from people that are fed up with taxes and politics of blue states like California, Washington and Illinois,” Mike Zschunke, an associate broker at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Arizona Properties, told Moneywise.

“They’re looking to move to Arizona for quality of life and are tired of the way the Democratic states are going. They don’t mind paying taxes as long as the administration is responsible for distributing those taxes within a state budget.”

Zschunke said there’s “definitely evidence” of Californians relocating to Arizona merely by looking at population flows out of California and into Arizona.

“Many of my clients are small business owners looking to move to a more business-friendly state such as Arizona,” he noted. “While it’s unfortunate that political divide has brought citizens to up and leave the neighborhoods they grew up in, many of our clients find that in Arizona there is a feeling of ‘we made it.’”

A cottage industry grows around pulling up stakes for political reasons

Even 20 years ago, it was common to find conservative Democrats (especially in the South) and liberal Republicans (particularly in the Northeast). Over time, those crossovers largely disappeared, with conservatives gravitating toward states with a Republican Party vibe and liberals toward states that included more Democrats. By 2022, high-profile studies (1) started stating that “at no point since the Civil War have partisans been as clustered within individual states as today.”

Soon enough, companies — mostly real estate agencies — began catering to politically disaffected consumers and offering to help them move to a new state or abroad that better aligned with their political ideologies.

Companies like Texas-based Conservative Move, which aids conservatives in finding new homes in more politically aligned states, and TexasPride Realty Group, which offers a service called “Flee Red States” to liberals to find a new home outside of the Lone Star State that leans their way politically.

Paul Chabot, a retired U.S. Navy commander who launched Conservative Move in 2017, told NPR (2) that most of his clients “feel like they can’t talk politics with people on their street.”

“It’s not like people are leaving just because they hate democrats,” he added. “They don’t like democrat policies, but they really feel like they’re alone, alienated, ostracized,” he says.

On its website, Flee Red States echoes that sentiment, at least from a political outlook: “If you feel the need to leave the jurisdiction of a Red State, let us help you sell your property here and connect you with an LGBTQIA+ or ally agent in a better location of your choice.”

The business is licensed in Texas and has affiliates in all 50 states and several counties.

That’s not to say that real estate agents who offer political homebuying focus only on that factor. As always, affordability and other issues matter, too.

“From a moving-industry perspective, political preferences appear to be one factor in relocation decisions, but rarely the only one,” Bojan Mladenovic, founder of Move-Price, a New York City-based company that provides moving cost estimates to buyers and connects them with moving companies, told Moneywise.

Mladenovic said his company tracks moving costs across all 50 states and he consistently sees heavy migration corridors such as California to Texas, New York to Florida, and California to Arizona.

“These are expensive moves,” he noted. “A typical two-bedroom household moving from California to Texas spends roughly $7,350 to $8,400 with professional movers. People don’t make that kind of financial commitment casually.”

Working with a realtor that makes politics a priority may not be necessary

It’s inevitably up to the consumer to decide whether working with a real estate company that caters to their specific public policy needs is worth it. But Zschunke said that realtors who mix political leanings with traditional real estate services aren’t doing anything unique.

“They’re merely collecting your information and passing it along as a ‘lead’ to a local agent for a 30% referral fee,” he said. “In Arizona, we are legally only allowed to pay a referral to other licensed brokers, so I am not sure these companies are genuine and have the client’s best interest in mind.”

That fee figure aligns with traditional home relocation services, where total fees charged by real estate and corporate relocation companies range from 15% to 46% (3) of gross agent commissions on home sales. Additionally, administrative service fees of $1,000 to $3,000 are common. It’s also worth noting that hidden referral fees curb a real estate agent’s total commission.

Mladenovic agreed, noting that, from a financial standpoint, most households don’t need a politically specialized relocation service.

“A standard real estate agent can help buyers find neighborhoods that fit their preferences regardless of political leanings,” he said. “When consumers pay additional consultation fees for politically branded relocation services, they’re often layering extra costs onto an already expensive move.”

For example, interstate relocations already routinely cost thousands of dollars before housing-related expenses are considered.

“Consumers should evaluate whether a specialized service provides value beyond what a traditional real estate professional can already offer,” Mladenovic said. “In many cases, the same outcome can be achieved through a local real estate agent without paying additional fees tied to a politically focused brand.”

Americans are paying thousands to flee states over politics — but experts say using specialized agencies is not worth it

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