Blue-county people are flocking to red counties during the pandemic

A new study from Redfin, the online real estate brokerage, helps connect the dots on whether migrations patterns from blue cities (like Milwaukee, Boston and Portland) to Sun Belt cities (like Tampa, Phoenix and Miami) during the pandemic could have political implications — though the line is a bit blurry.

The big picture: Daryl Fairweather, Redfin's chief economist, told me there was no way to tell if the people moving from blue to red places were attracted by the more right-leaning politics or whether they were Democrats who could potentially shift the center of gravity.

• "In our migration patterns, people are moving from the blue counties to the more red-leaning counties, and that could have implications for — or change — the election," Fairweather said.
• Lower taxes and less density are also motivators.

The bottom line: "The most popular places people are moving to are the swing counties, which I think is interesting given how polarized the country is," Fairweather said.

• It seemed to her "that people do want to live in areas where there's a mix of Republicans and Democrats."