More and more Californians are leaving the state because of rising housing costs and taxes and moving to lower-cost states like Nevada, Arizona, and Texas, CNBC staffer Jeff Daniels reports.
Based on the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey data, "lower income Californians are the ones who are leaving, not higher income," said Christopher Thornberg, founding partner of research and consulting firm Beacon Economics in Los Angeles.
Thornberg notes that the main reason people are leaving is because there are often bidding wars for the limited number of homes that become available.
"The rate at which California has been losing people to other states has accelerated in the past couple of years, in part because of rising housing costs," said Jed Kolko, chief economist with employment website Indeed.com.
From July 2016 to July 2017, California saw a net loss of just over 138,000 people, while Texas had a net increase of more than 79,000 people, according to the latest Census Bureau data. Arizona gained more than 63,000 residents, and Nevada gained more than 38,000.
"You can literally have a lot of buying power for the dollar in Southern Nevada versus Southern California," said Christopher Bishop, president of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. "So it has been a major trend over the year, year and a half, and we're seeing it increase."
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