David Meltzer
Los Angeles has always been the home of movie stars and blockbuster shoots, but now, it seems many people are running for the hills—and we don’t mean Beverly Hills.
Once the epicenter of the worldwide film industry, La-La Land now seems more “like a Rust Belt crater,” according to a recent report from Vulture.
“It’s so grim, like a sad company town where the mill is closing,” one anonymous executive told the publication.
Today, only about 1 in 5 American films and shows is being filmed in Los Angeles. And the reasons are many—lingering effects from the COVID-19 pandemic, wildfires, worker strikes, the decline of movie theaters, and healthy tax incentives offered by other states.
All of this means that the majority of films are now being produced outside of Los Angeles—and the industry’s workers are following.
Many big box-office stars are also no longer tethered to the area, either. Celebrities such as Mark Wahlberg, Chris Evans, Matthew McConaughey, Glenn Powell, and Rachel McAdams have all quit California.
But without movies and without celebrities, what does that mean for the overall Los Angeles–area real estate market? Spoiler alert, it’s not great.
In June 2025, 38.1% of Los Angeles–based home shoppers on Realtor.com® looked at homes in other states. The top out-of-state markets for these shoppers were Las Vegas (2.8% of views), Phoenix (1.7%), Dallas (1.05%), Portland, OR (0.98%), and Lake Havasu, AZ (0.9%).
“We’re witnessing a significant shift in both celebrity migration patterns and the ripple effect on the Los Angeles housing market,” says Southern California real estate agent TJ Convertino.
“The slowdown in consistent film production locally—paired with more shoots happening in places like Georgia, Texas, Vegas, and Canada—has reduced the ‘gotta-be-here’ urgency that once defined L.A. homebuying, particularly in the luxury tier.”
