Evan White, the co-executive director of the California Policy Lab, details why thousands of residents have left the Golden State in recent years.
Millions of Californians, in every part of the state, live with an uneasy day-to-day preoccupation: Housing is so expensive here, food and gas and utilities are so expensive - would it make sense to pull up stakes and leave for another state?
In a new study, researchers at the California Policy Lab dove deep into the data to discover who leaves, where they go and what happens to their finances in their new communities. In this 101 in 101 video, lab co-Executive Director Evan White details how the high cost of living is driving some residents to consider relocation outside the Golden State. The ongoing video series challenges UC Berkeley's scholars and experts to explain the basics of their research in only 101 seconds.
White says the number of people leaving in recent years is just a tiny percentage of California's overall population of 39 million residents - an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 per year. But their departures, combined with the declining numbers of incoming migrants, signal trouble in paradise.
People who leave are "moving to places where the overall housing costs are often 30 to 50% lower than in California," he explains. "People who leave the state of California see really large increases in their ability to own a home over the next seven years."
White says that neighboring states such as Oregon, Nevada and Arizona are a big draw for cost-conscious Californians. At the same time, the number of migrants who come here from other states and countries is down somewhat.
Taken together, he says, these trends are putting pressure on state and local policymakers to address California's high cost of living, especially for housing.
Watch more 101 in 101 videos featuring UC Berkeley faculty and experts here.
