A lot of this could be explained by americans just selling their properties to people who made their money in less progressive societies and economies. Coming t

A lot of this could be explained by americans just selling their properties to people who made their money in less progressive societies and economies. Coming to the US means you are in an upper income and education percentile in your home country, which may have over a billion people. Compared to someone from India who was educated internationally or is the child of a party member in China, the average american is a bumpkin. Wealth from more unequal societies across the pacific is on a level most westerners can't comprehend. Why shouldn't it be the case that middle class americans use the money from much wealthier newcomers to move to places they know they can thrive outside the main cities, but where newcomers would have thinner networks and fewer opportunities? It was white flight when immigration rates were much lower and cities like Detroit needed a business tax base but exiled it by electing marxists in the 70s and 80s, where now, wealth comes from overseas and cities don't need "white" people to fund them. Whether Asian immigrants will also leave cities as they collapse under similar policies remains to be seen, as no matter how chaotic SF gets, it will never approach anything on the level of a BRIC megacity. Racism seems like the simplest explanation, but that's all it is, and it's getting boring.