Even with all of the amenities and beauty, the Los Angeles metro area and the state of California have both seen notable migrations over recent years, something once again seen in a new report.
According to a January renter migration report from Apartment List, 32% of the website’s users in the Los Angeles metro area have been looking elsewhere, searching for apartments in a different metro area. Popular destinations are noted in both Los Angeles’ Southern California contemporaries like Riverside and San Diego, but out of state metro areas like Phoenix, Seattle and Dallas were also popular searches.
By comparison, less users outside of the city are looking inward, as 25% of renters searching for Los Angeles apartments are from out-of-town areas like Riverside, San Diego and San Francisco.
Of those looking to move out of the Los Angeles area, 67.8% of users sought out another metro area, while 32.2% of users searched for cities outside of a metro. The number of Apartment List users searching to move metro-to-metro has dipped in recent years, going from 41.4% in 2021 to 40.7% in 2022 and 38.5% in 2023.
Migration has encompassed the entire state, according to 2023 state-level population estimates from the Census Bureau. Out of the states with the largest losses in net domestic migration (population lost to other states), California led the pack significantly with over 338,000 citizens lost. The state’s population outflow outpaced New York (216,778), Illinois (83,839) and New Jersey (44,666), and accounts for 0.9% of California’s population.
Apartment List platform data helps get a hold of the question on where Californians in general move to, not just those in the Los Angeles metro area. According to the site’s searches, renters wanting to move out are looking toward Nevada (12% of outbound searches), Texas (12%), Arizona (11%), Washington (8%) and Florida (5%). Many of these options, Apartment List states, "represent a flight to more affordable Sun Belt states."
The move to states like Texas and Florida also holds true in the 2023 U-Haul Growth Index, which reflects state net gain or loss of one-way U-Haul movers. California reflected the largest net loss of one-way movers for the fourth year in a row, while Texas and Florida were the top net gainers for the third straight year.
"Migration to states in the Southeast and Southwest is still very pronounced," U-Haul International President John Taylor said. "Demand for one-way equipment out of certain markets [on] the ... West Coast mirrors what we have seen during recent moving cycles."
Average rent prices have played a role in the migration, as according to RentCafe, California laps the rest of the country in average rent price. The website states that the average California apartment rent price is $2,531 with an average apartment size of 851 square feet. By comparison, California movers’ destinations are much more affordable, such as Texas’ average of $1,451 and Arizona’s average of $1,597.
Outside of apartment renting, those migrating out of California may be persuaded by dreams of home ownership, especially for youth. Per Point 2 Homes, those 25 and under "refrain from putting down roots in expensive hubs like LA" due to home ownership being a "pipe dream" in the area. In a report of the country’s largest cities, Los Angeles was ranked sixth-most difficult to become a homeowner for Generation Z, with home prices over 22 times above the average young person’s household income. Seven California cities (Fremont, San Diego, San Jose, Riverside, Los Angeles, Sacramento and Chula Vista) make up the top 10 of the Point 2 Homes difficulty report.
