Bay Area families are crawling somewhere—anywhere—else

It's no secret that folks with dependents find it challenging to afford Bay Area living. Since the pandemic, California has welcomed many single people to its golden shores, but families are, in worrying numbers, shrinking away from CA's sky-high expenses. The OC Register's Jonathan Lansner analyzes this imbalance in light of CA's extensive population losses.

Look, no matter the reason – costs, congestion, civics or civility – California’s sun-surf-sand lifestyle isn’t selling. Its population inflow was roughly half the national norm with 2.7% of U.S. taxpayers making an interstate move in 2021.

Worse, this disinterest in California is growing. Go back to 2016, well before anybody without a doctorate in pandemics knew what a coronavirus was.

IRS stats that year show 432,443 taxpayers arrived in California. Again, the third-largest influx behind Texas and Florida.

But consider how life changed over these five years. A lockdown mentality inspired an upswing in national migration patterns. Nationwide, interstate relocations grew 11% between 2016 and 2021. Moves to Texas had 17% growth. Florida was up 23%.

But California was the place to avoid. Moves to the Golden State fell by 11% in this period. Yes, FELL.

Only two states — North Dakota and Louisiana — had bigger drops.

Who’s coming?

The 2021 influx was heavy with single people.

That’s logical as young adults are frequent movers, and high-cost California isn’t a friendly place for folks with families.

The average new Californian’s tax filings had 1.6 dependents – including the filer. Only five states had smaller inbound households. And the national average for interstate moves was 1.76 dependents.

This article originally appeared in the Orange County Register. Read the whole thing here.

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