When asked whether they would move out of California if they could, one in three respondents answered with a resounding “yes.” This is according to a recent poll conducted by Gallup, which surveyed residents across the nation about their desire and intent to move.
California respondents represented an average desire to move out of their home state as compared to the rest of the nation. Residents with the highest desire to relocate were concentrated in Illinois and much of the Northeast. On the other hand, residents who professed the intention to stay put were found in places as diverse as Hawaii, Montana and Texas.
14% of California respondents claimed they would likely move out of state in the next 12 months, a hair higher than the nationwide average of 13%.
Editor’s note: Stated plans to move don’t always align with reality. The actual percentage of individuals moving out of California each year is significantly lower than the quoted 14%. Less than one percent of the total population moved out of California in 2013.
Of those who plan to move out of state within the next 12 months, the reasons given were:
- a change of job (31%);
- proximity to family and friends (19%);
- preferable weather (11%);
- improved quality of life (9%);
- school/educational attainment (8%);
- reduced cost of living (5%); and
- lower taxes (3%).
This is yet another indicator that jobs are the main mover of real estate (much more significant than taxes).
What’s the conclusion to be drawn from all these numbers? All this survey proves is that a third of your clients might prefer to move to a more exotic location. However, it does not mean you’ll be losing any of those clients to other states anytime soon. As long as job growth continues (and it is projected to return to pre-recession levels by the end of 2014), we Californians have little to fear from residents relocating en masse out of state. Further, what people do and what people say are not at all the same.
As the old mantra goes, real estate is all about location, location, location. And this where the Golden State has a substantial advantage over its neighbors. California is a great place to live, with pleasant weather, social and economic diversity, quality schools, geographic dynamism and an overall high standard of living. Your clients may choose to vacation in Hawaii or Montana, but they’ll be back home in the Golden State soon enough.
And why are jobs elsewhere? Too heavy a tax burden on small businesses and their owners. Income net of taxes is the driver of jobs AND real estate asset value.
There are those that sing the praises of urban living and denigrate and cast aspersion upon country and small town life. Those urbanites may enjoy the smell of exhaust and air pollution, love sitting in gridlock, and thrive on the hectic and stressful pace of city living. Yes, they want to STAY in urban California, despite the bars on windows, the high crime, and the general rudeness of the populace ( that famous poll has given L.A. first place nationwide—replacing NYC—as having the rudest people in the nation).
That same city slicker will vaunt his or her sophistication (really pseudo-sophistication if truth be told), higher education level, and general “coolness” compared to country folk or small town dwellers. They will put down “simple folk” as inferior, uncultured, and uneducated.
But, wait till the social unrest begins. Wait till those “city services” so vaunted by the sophisticate get cut off. Wait till hyper-inflation hit and store products are priced sky high. Wait till some of the 25,000+ miles of underground gas lines begin exploding or off-gassing fumes into the air or the methane begins shooting out of the ground again in the Fairfax district, or a quake hits, or some other catastrophe that gridlocks the streets as you try to flee, then see how sweet that urban life becomes.
Talk to people. You will see that MANY would leave now, if they only could.
Yes, indeed, California can be a great place to live…..IF you are among the privileged minority than can afford to live in a nice upscale neighborhood.
Otherwise, join the masses in the working class neighborhoods riddled with high crime, extra-polluted air— due to the proximity of oil refineries, factories, and body shops— and with a cement and asphalt landscape with streets lined with overhead power lines and walls full of gang graffiti, and bars on every window. Then tell me how sweet life is in California.
Truth be told, the REAL reason most people who yearn to move out cannot move out is this: It is really expensive to move! And, what could they afford elsewhere? The masses trapped here are largely illegal immigrants and poorer working class people who would love to get out but simply can’t.
Many middle class persons would also like to leave but, for market reasons and job reasons, are stuck right where they are.
The more rural areas and small towns in California offer a higher quality of life, but anyone living in the hellishly crowded mess called Los Angeles or even most of its closer in suburbs who believe they have a high quality of life don’t know what quality living really is. They were probably born and raised and lived all their lives in big crowded cities.
If you think sitting in traffic and breathing exhaust for one-twelfth of your waking life is living high, you are living in delusion. But, you are oh so willing to pay $1.3 million for a three-bedroom stucco shack on the Westside with a tiny yard to be able to join all the other deluded denizens and pretend your life is sweet.
Meanwhile, some family makes $18,000 a year in some other state, lives in a more rural area or small town, breaths fresh air, sees all the stars at night–even the Milky Way—(what’s that, asks an native Angelino?), dangle their feet in the local cool creek on a warm summer day, and enjoy watching bunnies playing in the fields and deer grazing behind their house. Now, that’s living!
But you will argue till you’re blue in the face that we have it better here. Just wait till some catastrophe strikes (natural or man-made) and see if you can get out. The freeways will be gridlocked and there will be no getting out. Then you will have the opportunity to reformulate your opinions about how good life in urban California is.
Some would look at the bucolic picture you paint and call it boring, not to mention unrealistically romantic. Rural communities have their own share of problems – substance abuse, poverty, lack of access to quality healthcare and education, lack of diversity and an intensely repressive social life, to name a few.
The joys of urban living………high crime, police and fire sirens at any hour of the day or night, low buzzing helicopters, low flying planes, traffic gridlock, filthy air pollution, gardeners’ leaf blowers’ deafening noise, ubiquitous graffiti, panhandlers, no parking spots, ridiculous home prices, outrageous rip-off rents, and a whole host of other niceties. Now, if that isn’t boring, I don’t know what is.
Contrast all those urban niceties to the clearer skies, fresher air, open spaces, generally friendlier people, lower cost of living, wholesome fresh home-grown produce, lower crime, beautiful views, nature’s little animals in your backyard, and being able to actually see stars at night and sleep deeply in the quiet and still of the peaceful landscape. If you think that is overly romantic and falsely bucolic you may have never lived it and have no idea.
Isn’t it a curious FACT that most all of the world’s ultra-wealthy, who could live wherever they choose, generally do NOT live in cities but in the country, in isolated mountain areas, or on remote private islands? Maybe they’re onto something, eh?