Poking CA's specious happiness claim

Don't be fooled by happiness studies in California, says California Focus's Thomas Elias. Those not high-tailing it to other states due to housing unaffordability (cough: SJ) are enjoying the Golden State's benefits and may register on multiple “happy” criteria, but many longtime residents feel forced to move elsewhere.

California lost a net of more than 114,000 residents during the last year and about 500,000 over the last three years.

So why are Californians who stayed and those who arrived during that same time among the happiest folks in America?

It might be that they are among the select who can afford to live in this state, where the median housing price of more than $700,000 puts California among the top three priciest places in the nation. Its most populous county, Los Angeles, even tops the statewide median price figure by about $100,000.

Strikingly, research indicates it’s not the most expensive places in California that are happiest. Atherton, whose people average out as America’s wealthiest, does not make the top 10 list of the happiest spots in the nation, while six other California cities are on that list, as reported by the website smartassett.com.

Those six include the happiest city, Sunnyvale, hard by the headquarters of Apple and Google in the heart of the Silicon Valley; Fremont, where most Teslas are built, ranked fourth; with the Sacramento suburb Roseville seventh, San Jose eighth, the Los Angeles bedroom suburb of Santa Clarita ninth and Irvine in Orange County rounding out the top 10.

Among the happiness measures the study used were the percentage of individuals earning more than $100,000 per year, living costs as a percentage of income, violent crime rates, life expectancy and the number of poor mental health days reported.

This article originally appeared in the California Focus. Read the whole thing here.

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