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More people plan to leave California in 2024 than any other state

June 17, 2024

By KAREN VELIE

Amid the high cost of housing, taxes and gas, California leads in the number of people planning to relocate to another state in 2024, according to Consumer Affairs.

From 2020 through 2023, California’s population dropped by 1.4%. This includes a slight increase of 0.17% in 2023.

Primarily citing the high cost of housing, the number of Californians planning to leave the state in 2024 has swelled to 17,824. Consumer Affairs analyzed information from 143,506 Consumer Affairs users who are planning to move in 2024.

States people plan to leave in 2024

State                     Leaving           Moving to             Net migration

  1. California            17,825             7,371                  -10,453
  2. New York              5,997             3,807                    -2,190
  3. New Jersey           3,773             1,924                    -1,849
  4. Illinois                  4,772             3,144                    -1,578
  5. Washington           5,004             4,171                       -833
  6. Maryland               2,880             2,134                      -746
  7. Massachusetts       2,850             2,219                       -631
  8. Colorado               4,895             4,374                       -521
  9. Pennsylvania         4,466             3,985                       -481
  10. Connecticut           1,832             1,370                       -462

Even though New York has the second highest number of people planning to move, the number one online search for moving routes is from Los Angeles to New York, according to moveBuddah. The second most searched route is from New York to Miami.

The South appears to be the most popular area to relocate, according to Consumer Affairs. Florida, with a lower cost of living and no personal income tax, leads in migration.

With housing costing approximately half what it is in California, Texas is the second most popular state in the nation for migration.

States people are moving to in 2024

  1. Florida                            16,259
  2. Texas                              10,602
  3. North Carolina                  7,970
  4. South Carolina                  5,585
  5. Tennessee                        5,291
  6. Georgia                            5,059

Since 2005, at least 237 companies have left California with the majority relocating in Texas, according to California Policy Center. In 2023, Texas led the nation in job growth and creation.

As companies leave California, lower than expected tax revenues have left California with a budget deficit of $56 billion over the next two years.

 


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When comparing numbers CA lost 20 times the population than Connecticut lost. Adjusting for the size of population (CA is 10X) it is better said that CA lost twice population compared to Connecticut’s loss. Which isn’t the great migration it is being made out to be.


0

Just a bit of anecdotal evidence… I have watched 7 couples who are friends leave California in the past 10 years and two more couples are making plans to leave…

All seven claim to be very happy with their new life out from under siege by the state…


37

If a community’s political alignment, and avoidance of the “state”, is that important to you, you should go to where you will be content.

Some people around here want greater state involvement. They might even be the majority! Look at the parking meter thing, APCD, Regional Water, Coastal Commission. All these bodies have constituencies that support their “state involvement”. It is kind of what you get when a community goes from rural to urban.


-41

So out of the 143,000 people polled only 7.2% are leaving. That leaves 92.8% that aren’t. 92.8%! Personally, I’m not really going to miss the 7% who were not making it or are unhappy living here because of their political beliefs.


-25

People polled??? really?…


13

Polling a person refers to the act of asking an individual for their opinion or gathering information from them as part of a broader study or survey. Polls are used to understand people’s attitudes, preferences, or views on specific topics or issues. Rather than conducting a census of every single person, polls sample opinions and provide estimates that help us gauge public sentiment at a given moment in time


-9

Guess I should have worded that differently

“After polling 143,000 people it was determined that….” or something along that line. Who knows maybe they did need to have their horns removed during questioning.


-13

Does this mean I can come back now then? You f*ckin people ran me out of there 15 years ago when you swallowed up all the rentals. Is there a broom closet somewhere I can rent now?


31

We’re not leaving, Just look at this place! It gets better each year. We save big money travelling locally. Wonderful wine, awesome restaurants, jaw dropping locales, outdoors galore, and nice people. And no disease ridden plane ride!

I’ve been to Texas, Florida, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Washington. The Devil himself designed the climate. And topographically, foodie and liquorish wise, THIS PLACE IS GREAT!

The income tax rates are out of line and public sector compensation is to blame.


13

As the proverb says, “But for the grace of God go I.” Luckily I was blessed with plenty of resources, education, generational wealth and property.


I cannot blame anybody for leaving California. The bottom line is that the state is more expensive than many would like to pay. Those who blame Democrats strictly for that should realize that migration out of the state has been slow and steady since 1990 through both Democratic and Republican governments. It’s certainly easy to blame the Democrats who are monolithic, but I blame the Republican party for not running viable candidates.


I mean, look at the current election, instead of running a legitimate candidate for senator with experience in government who would bring fresh ideas, the Republicans trot out ex-baseball player Steve Garvey (and he only won because Adam Schiff plastered all over TV) who has zero business in politics.


Arizona, Nevada and Texas have been logical places for Californians with the rise of larger tech sectors in those states, especially Austin, Texas which, if you’ve ever been there, feels more like a California city than a Texas city. Likewise, suburbs of Phoenix, high in tech jobs, seem more liberal than the state in general.


California is a large state with many moving parts. I’m not sure the fact that people are moving—Americans have always been restless—is proof the state is somehow failing. I do believe we could use more conservative voices in the legislature, but not the MAGA crowd that has taken over the Republican party.


Anyway, please check out my sources if you think I’m wrong. The study from the Manhattan Institute (from 2012) is particularly enlightening.


https://www.chron.com/culture/article/california-to-texas-18477683.php


https://media4.manhattan-institute.org/pdf/cr_71.pdf


-21

I didn’t consider Arnold as conservative, though that’s the tag they gave him. But- it’s just so unfriendly to businesses here. That, and property tax. A new great family moved here I met through school-aged kids recently, and their jaws dropped at not necessarily home prices, but that spending around $1m, you end up with a monthly tax bill of around $1k per month. It makes a huge difference, and the exodus would be massive if Prop 13 ever goes away.


53

That’s exactly why we need some Reagan-Lagomarsino conservatives in the legislature to balance things out. No idea where those Republicans went.


13

That’s a very interesting question. We know classically liberal areas are coasts and large cities. (that’s fascinating and complicated on it’s own) but we did see R’s after Reagan. Wilson and Deukmajian- were pretty much the 80’s and 90’s. Now, I wasn’t voting age for half that time, but I remember more families, more full schools (at least in SLO), and businesses popping up all over. But to your point…yeah…where did they go? And even more interesting to me (sorry, long-winded) is why are we so loyal to a particular party when they are not performing well?


17

Nice links “Generational Wealth”, LOL

I had to care for mine. At one time in my late fifties, I calculated I had spent 40% of my life supporting failing parents and siblings and uncles and aunts. What a burden. Never took a dime of welfare except food stamps. We were crushed.


13

My dad worked until the day he died, slumped over in his tractor, tilling a field of lettuce. He was 79. Never retired, up at 5 am every day of his life, lunch at 11, dinner at 5, bed at 8, never took a vacation other than two weeks a year in Colorado to hunt deer. Too bad he raised a liberal. He might not have liked Trump, but he probably would have voted for him.


17

Not sure why people downvote a nice tribute to a hard-working American dad there, but…such are the times.


3

We’ll look at that, mad exodus from blue states.


25

The trickle east is occurring for primarily economic decisions. People moved west until it got too expensive. Now the flow is ever so slightly reversing; people move east to enjoy a lower cost of living.

But make no mistake about it… that doesn’t make them suddenly become members of a cult that supports an amoral pandering felon with an orange spraytan and bad comb-over. And make no mistake about this: highly educated, high income people continue to move west for the climate and amenities.


-10

That’s an interesting take as these data provided show Californians moving to states that support commonly approved policies with your described “amoral pandering felon with an orange spray tan and bad comb-over” -many to the same state where he resides. But if you look at the much smaller number of people moving to California now as “high-educated and high-income,” I can’t find those stats anywhere. By this, you state that uneducated and low income are the people moving from California. My last two friends who moved away were a physician and a hedge fund compliance officer (Texas and Tennessee), but ok…Interesting ideas.


3

Don’t forget the politics. We’re taking our long term business and 2 children out of this state. At some point you have to feel that your sacrifices are worth it and that you are making the best possible choice for your family. They can keep the weather.


32

That list of where people are moving to is not shocking- 3 of them don’t have an income tax….plus Tennessee doesn’t tax investment earnings, either.


34

Tennessee taxes food! At 4%! Add sales tax at 7%. Those no income tax states always get you somewhere.


12

LOL… yup! There’s no such thing as a free lunch. No-income-tax states generally have much higher property taxes too. Those states need to pay their public service employees a living wage and support them in retirement too.


6

One can only hope that such an exodus will cause home prices and rents to fall. But given the population of this state, that number is likely too small to actually make a difference. For so many decades, people streamed here from every direction.


In my experience, many of the people who left ended up regretting it very shortly afterwards. Another major problem here is how many homes the undertaxed, over wealthy have bought as “investments”, and allowed to sit empty. Fully half of the structures in my town sit without anyone in residence, often for the whole year. Harder to attach real estate than a bank account, a consideration for those who are stockpiling resources by nefarious means.


And then there is the fact that places like SLO county voted against rent control, supposedly because it would “hurt veterans”. I’m wondering how the vets in the tents and cardboard boxes and, at best, shelters would respond to that.


And watch me get voted down on this simple statement of fact, by the very “greed is good” people who voted for the policies that have driven folks away. They have NO answers for this situation but their standard “blame the libs” mantra. Might as well stick with that, if it is all you have.


-50

People here will see that you posted, and will down-vote you without reading your post…LOL


21

True that. It should be noted that all states losing people are run by Democrats. Republicans run the states gaining.


30

In all honesty, I got to “..undertaxed, and over wealthy..”, and had to stop and laugh.


The top 10% in America of the “over wealthy”, pay at least 55% of ALL taxes collected by the government. The bottom 40% of the “under-wealthy”? They pay no taxes at all.


And, what is “over wealthy”? Is it not the goal of life, to be successful in all your endeavors? Whether with large healthy families, small and loving families, content with status quo, or building an empire. If you are content with your goals, then who is anyone to say it is “too much” or “not enough”?


While I’m not wealthy like a movie star, I made good choices with my money early in life, with smart investments and savings plans. I sacrificed many comforts along the way, and my family also suffered with me. Never to the point of dissatisfaction or danger, but that new car had to wait another 10 years. The result, is I retired at 52, have no debt, the house is paid for, and I live very comfortably with nothing but time for anything that pleases me, like responding to silly comments about the jealousy towards successful people, who want to keep what they earned, and are leaving California to do so.


I’ll not be far behind them.


49

52! D … good job! I am happy for you!


14

Well said Messkit!


10

“The top 10% in America of the “over wealthy”, pay at least 55%”


Very true, but they also control more wealth than the bottom 90% combined.



-8

I read something recently that “over-wealthy” means a household earning $98k annually. What does that get you around here? Zillow’s affordability calculator says that example could afford a house up to….$20,000. ;)


9

Stockpiling resources by nefarious means seems to be a heavy dose of overreach.


-9

What exactly do you mean by that, “stockpiling resources…”


1

Such a puppy-pile of comments of negativity towards my comment! It appears to have gone right over more than a few heads, I’ll just put my response here:


To be clear, when I refer to the “over wealthy” (most people get that), I mean those who have HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS, or BILLIONS, or TENS OF BILLIONS or HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS of the economy tied up in their personal name. I thought that one would be easily understood, but there I go again, overestimating. Perhaps many of you are totally unaware that such hoarding is even happening, or maybe you don’t begin to understand how that is affecting the availability for others to simply make a living or thrive, as some of you are bragging about doing for yourselves. Members of the “I got mine” crowd are often only self-involved in that way.


Taking no responsibility for allowing your “party” to run candidates that take massive bribes from the already over-wealthy (now you know to whom I refer), to do their bidding and further relieve them of any burden of taxation whatsoever, is greatly responsible for why the rest of us pay more than our share. But you go right ahead and pretend you don’t know exactly what I’m talking about here.


Because when you get to the top 1%, most of them pay no taxes whatsoever. And as for making America “great” again, either you are referring to white supremacy or to when the top tax rate was more like 92%, under the great President Dwight D. Eisenhower. A republican, for those of you who do not seem to be history buffs. You may be too young to remember, but most of our infrastructure was developed during that time, with that money. Unions thrived, which helped to create the solid middle class we had then. Students were not slammed with a life-long unmanageable debt, our healthcare was not “for profit” and unaffordable and was about the best in the world. A family could have a home in a decent neighborhood, a good car, healthcare, higher education for more than one child, etc., all on one salary.


If the GOP ran another candidate like Eisenhower, I would vote for them in a heartbeat. But NOOOOooooOOo! Ya’ll run people who model just the opposite. It might be more effective to blame the policies of those who got us where we are for a change, if you are unhappy with something here. Otherwise, well, there are plenty of red states. If that would be your “happy place”.


But don’t expect me to be impressed with what is “cheap” there. States like California are burdened with bailing them out all the time. They do not carry their own financial weight federally. And they are “saving money” by having crappy schools, etc. Oh yes, and when I lived in Louisianna, there was an 11% tax on FOOD. Perfect way to keep the poor in their place.


-13

Astute Observer What part of “Please address the Policies, events and arguments, not the person.” is not clear to you?


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