People by moving are voting with their feet.
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Despite all the background noise there is a huge demographic shift. Baby boomers are moving to less expensive areas because they donât need to work and therefore move to areas with lower wages and lower costs. After selling your coastal city house you can afford to live anywhere( except maybe Aspen)
My retired friends are coming to Tahoe. But many are moving to Palm Springs Nevada Arizona Oregon Idaho Hawaii Mexico San Diego Florida and Texas.
Most that leave the BA stay in California.
California is still most desirable lace to live in the country due to weather and lifestyle. I wouldnât live anywhere else. Including Hawaii
Thereâs a difference between SF and CA.
Statistics donât care about individual preferences.
Housing costs are the main reason Californians leave the state. But lower wages in their destinations offset those advantages.
If house prices drop like some predict migration might reverse.
But most Californians think the state is overcrowded anyway. So to the quitters we say donât let the door hit you on the way out. Hasta la vista
âThere are lies damn lies and statistics.âStatistics are meaningless unless you drill down on the specifics
Funny, many of the people in the places Californians are moving to feel exactly the same way in reverse. âGo back where you came from.â
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Sounds like the teens in middle and high schools when they run out of logic and numbers. 
Seriously though, Nobody is listening to any Californianâs spiel to make their decisions. Theyâre doing it for their own self interests based on their circumstances and the numbers prove it.
Here are more statistics for you.
Rank for Per capita disposable income adjusted for cost of living CA is 37th.
- As expected, the states that moved down the most in the rankings were high-tax, high cost-of-living states like California (fourth highest tax burden, fifth highest cost-of-living), which moved down 25 places from No. 12 to No. 37, New York (second highest tax burden, third highest cost-of-living), which moved down 24 places from No. 5 to No. 29, and New Jersey (fifth highest tax burden, fourth highest cost-of-living), which moved down 12 places from No. 4 to No. 16.
Bottom Line : Personal taxes and cost-of-living differences vary widely among US states. To emphasize and expand on a point made by The Tax Foundation, adjusting state per-capita personal incomes for both differences in taxes and price levels can substantially change our perceptions of which states are poor or rich. And those perceptions change the most for high tax, high cost-of-living states like California, which goes from being in the top 25% of Americaâs states by pre-tax, per-capita personal income, to being in the bottom 25% of US states (and below Alabama and Arkansas) after adjusting for the stateâs high tax burden and high cost-of-living
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Agreed - in the last month I have been to Carmel/Pebble Beach, Napa and Tahoe - all for different things - you just canât get that in Texas. and sorry the hill country wineries are not even a comparison.
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I have a winery in California hill country. Better than any wine found in Texas.
I know everyone hates Californians. Even in Tahoe. Lol
I have advantage of over 100 years of intimate knowledge of California RE. My grandfather bought multi family housing in Berkeley in the 30s⌠I remember the huge growth of subdivisions in the 50s and. 60s. I remember well when 100,000 people left SF in the 70s and 80s. People will continue to leave California. But many more will come⌠Ebb and flow. But the reality is the ones that leave will not be missed. California has always changed and reinventing itself. South Lake Tahoe is a microcosm. It has changed incredibly in just 10 years.
My sister left SF for Salt Lake City in 1982. Her son born then moved to SF ten years ago.
Found Utah boring. Just bought a house in Albany, picked over SF. Better schools more convenient and less crowded. Plus an easy commute on Bart. Closer to downtown SF than the Sunset district. The Berkeley vibe without the silly politics. Hopefully sanity will return to BA politics.
People will return to the golden State, statistics are transitory
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Meh. CA has some advantages for young workers but the population is aging. Once youâve âgrabbed that cash with both hands and made a stashâ as the Pink Floyd song goes thereâs little reason to stay. OK, you have the coast but inland states have other amenities. And why put up with SF or LA congestion and filth?
Feb 2023: 40 of the Worldâs 100 Most Valuable Start Ups HQed in California
Berkeley is a good example of what happens when policies are screwed up when one compares the RE and prestige of Palo Alto which has Stanford Univ to Berkeley today vs 40 years back. If one scales up that example to the whole state of CA we can see what bad things can happen statewide, if policies throughout CA does not change, it will be more âebbâ rather than âflowâ like recently TILL CA policies change for the better.
The politicians will change in an instant if the voters expectations change, i.e. changes in policies for âpragmatically goodâ wonât happen automatically in some predetermined/preordained pattern of âupâ and âdownâ and then âupâ again. In the last 20 years though the trend shows things are getting worse IMO. However, Hope is eternal.
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And yet RE prices in Ca went up. 500,000 people is insignificant in a state of 40 million. Everlasting growth is not sustainable. California needs to concentrate on making the the state better not bigger. I think most refugees heading to Texas are fleeing the Midwest not California. For them Texas is a step up not down. Even Florida has little appeal to successful Californians except maybe retirees. We still need to build more housing just to satisfy the needs of our existing population. Meanwhile Biden is opening the borders so most likely all the western states will see population growth with millions of migrants across the southern border. At least the construction business agriculture and hospitality will benefit⌠cheaper housing food and restaurant prices? This is a national issue.