Why are people leaving California?

Interesting but not surprising, I have not been there in 35 years even then it was just a drive by visit, flew into Sacramento, rented a car to go up to Lake Tahoe. I have a BIL and his family there outside of San Francisco. I could never see the big draw. They took all their retirement money and built a million dollar home that they could have here for about 400,000. Made no sense to me. They are not on the beach, yes they can drive to SanFran in about 90 minutes, but come on.

Why not come to Texas where they could still have the house with a pool and buy a lake house in addition. It is going to get really crowded here in Texas. I don't have a new home but is big 4/3/2/2 and in a prime location. We only paid 90M when we bought it. My son will either move in or sell it for a good return. The word is out and people are coming and loving it.
 
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Blessed said:
Interesting but not surprising, I have not been there in 35 years even then it was just a drive by visit, flew into Sacramento, rented a car to go up to Lake Tahoe. I have a BIL and his family there outside of San Francisco. I could never see the big draw. They took all their retirement money and built a million dollar home that they could have here for about 400,000. Made no sense to me. They are not on the beach, yes they can drive to SanFran in about 90 minutes, but come on.

Why not come to Texas where they could still have the house with a pool and buy a lake house in addition. It is going to get really crowded here in Texas. I don't have a new home but is big 4/3/2/2 and in a prime location. We only paid 90M when we bought it. My son will either move in or sell it for a good return. The word is out and people are coming and loving it.
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90 Million ??? :unsure::sneaky:
 
hollydolly said:
I always think how beautiful California is... some gorgeous places, and homes...
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Absolutely it is!
hollydolly said:
and then I see tent city....
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Yep, and I think that is, in part at least, the result of the expense and crowding. Climate and politics contribute as well.

California is a very large place, with lots of open space, but much of that is either uninhabitable or in government ownership. There is also a lot of farmland, much of it in the San Juaquin Valley. Most of the people live in the areas surrounding Los Angeles and San Francisco.
 
San Francisco and LA get a lot of bad press due to drugs, homelessness and crime. I think San Diego, although very crowded is still a beautiful place. I enjoyed the beaches in California at one time. Huntington Beach was my favorite followed by Santa Monica.

I used to really enjoy flying into San Francisco on very windy days. The runways are located next to the ocean and can be very challenging. For me, it was a training session that I enjoyed. I will tell anyone that asks, yes, LAX is in need of a new airport. The airport now is outdated. I had heard that they were doing a multi-billion dollar makeover. I hope itā€™s true.
 
Blessed said:
Interesting but not surprising, I have not been there in 35 years even then it was just a drive by visit, flew into Sacramento, rented a car to go up to Lake Tahoe. I have a BIL and his family there outside of San Francisco. I could never see the big draw. They took all their retirement money and built a million dollar home that they could have here for about 400,000. Made no sense to me. They are not on the beach, yes they can drive to SanFran in about 90 minutes, but come on.

Why not come to Texas where they could still have the house with a pool and buy a lake house in addition. It is going to get really crowded here in Texas. I don't have a new home but is big 4/3/2/2 and in a prime location. We only paid 90M when we bought it. My son will either move in or sell it for a good return. The word is out and people are coming and loving it.
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Please don't tell people to move to Texas ...

They are moving here at an alarming rate now. All the cities in Texas are bursting at the seams.
 
I agree it seems odd to go to all the trouble of moving and then end up in Texas which is also crowded, prone to wildfires, and has extreme heat in the summers.

Here in Ohio, my friend just had her sister move here from California with her entire extended family; husband, son, daughter-in-law, grandchildren. Their main reason? The son was a career police officer in California and he said the police are hated there and talk of defunding never stops.
 
Happily, my grand-daughter and friend left California and moved to neighboring Pennsylvania. They were happy living in California for much of the time, but the cost of living and crowding became oppressive. The other grandparents lived there all of their working lives, but retired to Ohio - which was, in the economic sense, a very good plan. Retirement income goes a lot further here.
 
California is a beautiful state, as are all of ours. One of the largest populations means more of everything. More homes, more freeways, more traffic congestion to get anywhere, long lines, crowed beaches, resorts, outrageous prices for even medium sized homes.
Now more than ever, because of climate change, disastrous mudslides, wildfires, earthquakes......
Too much constant stress in living in CA has finally reached the breaking points of citizens who wish to have a day or two a year without crisis, drama, and immediate danger to their neighborhoods and homes.
I get it.
I will add that Texas is a poor second choice considering heat, fires, drought, heavy population, gun laws, abortion laws, and the list goes on. Oh, did I mention snakes!
 
Hubby and I lived in CA until 2001 when he retired. We sold our home and bought a fifth-wheel and truck and went to TX to register everything and get our "address" to have mail sent while we were on the road. It was pretty cheap for everything in TX back then. We eventually bought a nice 3-bedroom/2bath house for $90,000. That was in 2006.

Last January, when we had sold our house in AZ (after 8 loooong years) we thought about going back to TX. I started looking at homes for sale and I was shocked at how much the prices had gone up and the property taxes were ridiculous, so we crossed that off the list.

While we lived in AZ (from 2014-2022), our town was loaded with CA people coming across because they could buy a new house and live cheaper than they ever did in CA. Also, there were a lot of people coming from OR and WA state. Wish I had a nickel for every CA license plate we saw in the 8 years we lived there...haha :). Unfortunately, they've driven up the prices on homes there and the realtor's are loving it....that was even before the housing market went crazy.
 
Well,Mr. Robinson and I are both native Californians-neither of us ever imagined we`d live anywhere else. But at 72,he wanted to retire,and there was just no way living in California could we afford that. So we moved here to Idaho. Cost of living here is much less-although real estate prices are really climbing. I don`t think I will ever really love living here-we lived in a particularly beautiful area of California and where we are in Idaho is not nearly as pretty. But ya gotta do what ya gotta do...
 
Right Now said:
California is a beautiful state, as are all of ours. One of the largest populations means more of everything. More homes, more freeways, more traffic congestion to get anywhere, long lines, crowed beaches, resorts, outrageous prices for even medium sized homes.
Now more than ever, because of climate change, disastrous mudslides, wildfires, earthquakes......
Too much constant stress in living in CA has finally reached the breaking points of citizens who wish to have a day or two a year without crisis, drama, and immediate danger to their neighborhoods and homes.
I get it.
I will add that Texas is a poor second choice considering heat, fires, drought, heavy population, gun laws, abortion laws, and the list goes on. Oh, did I mention snakes!
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Add to the list the fire ants and cockroaches.
 
Thanks for the short summary video @dseag2, though whole books have been created on its actual complexities and specifics.

There was a 2 decade era after WWII when the population of California exploded. Many soldiers in the Pacific war were either stationed or passed through the state and were impressed enough to move there. Also the state's world leading movie and television industry broadcast its exceptional values to not only other US states but also the world. Anyone visiting the coastal California temperate ocean moderated climate will be impressed especially if they come from places with cold winters and or hot humid summers. And of course, the state has a long list of world class scenic features and parks. In that era, the state's popularity was greatly promoted and bragged about by its civic boosters, the envy of many.

My own parents from the Northeast were one of them and I was born in downtown LA. Note I have lived in several of the state's regions as well as a bit in Ohio, Connecticut, Mississippi, and Texas so have a broad perspective. This also meant a booming job market that increasingly was about world leading technologies so was a magnet for many of the best and most educated minds from elsewhere both to industry and universities. In the early 60's with the rise of surfing craze, its music industry, and its movies, and more soldiers from the Viet Nam war passing through, the state also became a magnet for late 60s youth culture. During the counterculture late 60s>70s era, large numbers of young people flocked to the state.

Wall street financial, real estate corporations, and Ivy League elites of course took notice and the real estate boom was continuous for years as they and wealthy bought up large areas of open empty lands. But those corporations also saw more real estate wealth if much greater immigration was allowed. Someone would be needed to buy the real estate and homes they owned. Something they and the country's small businesses knew the general public would not approve of the level of immigration they wanted, both legal and illegal, so despite the 1986 immigration legislation, instead because of their wealth, political, and media powers, used back door political methods to make sure they got what they greedily pursued. The current urban cesspools and impotent fractured governments like the vast Los Angeles region are the result. Obviously corps were correct in their assessment people living there would not like what would result but so what. Now they are playing golf in Palm Beach and Palm Springs. On the other hand, large numbers of disillusioned native USA citizens and those that could no longer afford its high cost of living that had moved in during the boom era have left while Wall Street has made sure they are replaced by eager foreigners that now have overwhelmed the state. Go into any K12 classroom and the contrast between what was and is is stark.
 

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