Who’s leaving California and who’s moving in?
The nonprofit, nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California is out with research addressing those questions based on the 2020 census.
Some of the key takeaways:
“The sellers that are moving out of state do, I think, feel priced out of their own market,” said Shelby Ryburn, co-founder of the MORE Real Estate Group. “That’s a challenge.”
The regional market is booming for higher-income home buyers, but that creates a challenge for middle and lower-income families.
“We just don’t have enough people selling for the demand of buyers that are coming in,” said Ryburn. “Until that levels out some, we’re going to continue to see prices increase.”
Lack of affordability is one reason for people leaving the state and a greater number of higher-earning individuals choosing to make California their home.
“We have seen people move in droves to the Nashville, Tennessee area, to many parts of Texas and to Boise, Idaho,” Ryburn said.
Isaac Hale, a political scientist and lecturer at UC Davis, has also witnessed this trend.
“The cost of living in California is extremely high, and that’s something that the Assembly and the state government has been fairly slow to address,” Hale said.
He outlined the issues lawmakers are running into when they try to take on affordable housing legislation — introducing bills to tackle the situation.
“Unfortunately, many of those have died in committee and the Democratic-controlled legislature,” Hale explained. “I think there is going to be some real internal struggles within the Democratic Party about what the future of affordable housing and affordable cost of living in California looks like.”
“Instead of staying local,” Ryburn said, “people may choose to seek out affordability if they can’t find it here.”
“We will always see that when we don’t have local residents who have significant salary increases,” she said. “I think a lot of them will continue to find lifestyle elsewhere.”
According to Hale, it’s estimated that California’s population grew by 2 million people over the last 10 years.
He explained that it’s not that California’s population is declining. It’s just not increasing at the rate it once was.
