Then again, California has low property taxes, relatively low food costs for good quality food, and a climate amenable to solar energy. Coastal areas also have a climate that promotes low energy usage, so even if electricity is expensive, cost of living is kept under control.
It’s not all bad. Also betting that for every person leaving, there’s another coming in either from further east or from abroad. Same deal with people whinging being people leaving NYC or NJ. The replacement rate (mostly from abroad) is good enough to not cause a population loss.[/quote]
The problem is you only have low property taxes IF you bought a long time ago. This is why all my family/relatives have no incentive/plans to move since their highest expense (housing) is locked in at a very low rate with property tax rates from the 70s/80s…
However, take a look at it as a young professional recently graduated and working for 5 years making, say 60k or even 120k dual professional income in the bay area…
I don’t know prices anymore so I am guessing and someone can correct me, but ANY house in a good school district with say a mere 1000 sqft is probably well over 700k. That’s hard for someone making 200k+, let along a younger professional who has worked for say 5 years or so, who wants to get married, start a family, etc…to get into. I think these are the people who should/will leave IMO since their taxes are high, can’t get a house to start a family in a good school district, and is the “middle-class” of old (the middle class now making household 45k are sorta in poverty IMO).
CA generally does have a lot of migration and second home purchases from people in China and Asia in general I think (asians like to live with other asians) so this helps with housing prices.
Some places in LA and UC Irvine I think is heavily at or near 50% asian already (which many people who aren’t asian tend to not like so more reasons to move).