The Golden State is witnessing an ongoing exodus that seems to be getting worse with every passing day. According to reports, many Californians have decided to move away from the state and settle elsewhere for many varying reasons.
Tech company moveBuddha carried out a brief survey to monitor this and notes that this will probably only get worse during the coming years.
California’s Ongoing Exodus
The exodus of locals from California started back in 2019 during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. This trend has not stopped and seems to only be increasing with time.
While some recent data suggested that the exodus is starting to reduce, newer data from tech company moveBuddha shows that the opposite is actually the case, and it is getting much worse than before.
The California Gold Rush in the 1800s
Back in the 1800s, the state of California witnessed a surge called the gold rush. This gold rush saw hundreds of thousands of people move from different parts of the country to California to make a better living and find wealth.
However, the reverse is the case now, as one needs to be quite wealthy already before one can afford to move and live in California, thanks to the high cost of living.
Hundreds of Thousands of People Are Leaving
In 2022, California welcomed about 475,803 new residents. However, this number did not end up as a net positive gain because the state lost 817,669 residents, which was almost double the gain that same year.
Since then, the trend of people moving out of California has increased significantly, with higher numbers being recorded every year.
A Decrease in Population and Predictions
About 24 years ago, California had a population of 34 million, which was also predicted to continue increasing significantly over time. The predictions said that the population would be 45 million in 2020 and would reach 60 million in 2040.
However, this does not seem feasible anymore as the 2020 numbers were 39.5, and they decreased to 38.9 million in March last year.
Leaving California
MoveBuddha also revealed that a very high number of people have been using their platform to find their preferred relocation route out of California. Therefore, the company has data showing people planning to leave California for other states and information on how they plan to do so.
Of the top ten most popular routes that were searched on the company’s website, five were inquiries to move from California to another part of the country.
Migrating from Los Angeles to New York
According to moveBuddha, the most searched relocation route was from Los Angeles to New York. Other popular destinations were Dallas and Las Vegas.
Los Angeles’s ranking as the top city came as no surprise to anyone because the city has millions of people living within its limits and has been very densely populated and packed for a very long time.
Moving from San Francisco
Apart from people trying to leave Los Angeles, San Francisco residents came in as a close second in the search history. In fact, if moveBuddha ranks the exit routes per capita, San Francisco would be at the top.
Another city that showed up quite high on the search list was San Jose. People searched for how to move from San Jose to places like Austin and Seattle a lot in the past few months.
California Is the U.S.’s second Most Expensive State
People are moving out of California for many different reasons. However, the most popular reason is the significantly high cost of living. The Missouri Economic Research and Information Center carried out a nationwide study on how expensive it was to live in all the states in the U.S., using the price of transportation, groceries, utilities, healthcare, and housing.
The center found that California is the second most expensive state to live in the U.S., following closely behind Hawaii only.
Finding Cheaper States
Without a doubt, there are many other cheaper states to live in and people in California are realizing this more and more. According to the study, the cheapest state to live in the United States of America is West Virginia.
The other four states that also have the lowest costs of living are Oklahoma, Kansas, Mississippi and Alabama. Those living in these places can attest to this.
High Cost of Moving
According to moveBuddha, people move a lot during the summer and this can be the reason for this surge in exit routes from the Golden State. However, the moving costs may increase significantly if there is also a surge in bookings.
With most of the trucks moving out of California and in similar directions, movers will have to pay a lot more money due to increased demand for trucks and manual labor.
Which Cities Are Californians Moving To?
When Californians move out of the state, where do they go? According to moveBuddha, these people are moving into other big cities in the U.S. These include places like Seattle, Las Vegas, Dallas, Austin and New York.
However, there are other studies that suggest that many Californians are beginning to prefer moving to southeastern and south states of the country.
What Can the Government Do?
Without a doubt, it is not surprising that people are leaving the state of California to find cheaper and more affordable homes. They are also trying to evade some of the state’s biggest problems such as high bills, low employment opportunities, incredibly high taxes, increasing crime, high traffic, tough business conditions and many more.
Therefore, the government has to battle these challenges before people can begin to believe in California once again and also afford to live there.