They’re now not California Dreamin’.
More than 500,000 folks fled the Golden State since 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic started, US Census migration knowledge reveals.
The exodus of roughly 508,000 residents between April 2020 and July 2022 was spurred by excessive housing costs, too-frequent pure disasters like wildfires and mudslides, and excessive crime charges within the cities, the Daily Mail reported Saturday.
The largest inhabitants declines had been in San Francisco county, at 7.1 % and Lassen county, at 7.5 %.
Lassen County, in northwest California, was hit my the large Dixie wildfire in 2021.
The ongoing housing affordability disaster is a key issue within the exodus, H.D. Palmer, deputy director of exterior affairs on the California Department of Finance, advised the Sacramento Bee.
In Sacramento, a family wage of round $145,000 is required to afford the median-priced home within the area, but the common revenue is not more than $71,000.
In San Francisco, which many tech business executives deserted as a result of pandemic, many workplace areas stand empty and town streets sometimes-violent drug addicts have taken over in a number of neighborhoods.
“San Francisco went from being one of many hottest workplace markets within the nation to one of many weakest,” Patrick Carlisle, Compass’ chief market analyst, advised the San Francisco Gate, including: ‘High tech employees had been those who had been probably to say, ‘Well if I can work from anywhere, I’ll transfer some place the place housing prices 90 % much less.”
The will increase in homelessness and crime have affected the “high quality of life ambiance” the downtown as soon as provided, Carlisle mentioned.

Making issues worse, he mentioned, mass layoffs throughout the tech business — which now top 130,000 positions — have compelled middle-class employees to maneuver.
Some areas of the state have seen inhabitants development. Nineteen of California’s 58 counties noticed a rise within the variety of residents throughout the identical time interval — primarily inland counties with decrease housing prices.
The fastest-growing county was San Benito, which is positioned simply south of the Bay Area, based on Census knowledge.