What’s Driving California’s Mass Exodus?

Taxes Taxes Taxes and super high prices for low quality housing. SMH

Leaving California is the most Californian thing right now.

I lived on Oakland for years. I bought a 10 Acer Ranch in Cotati for $185,000. It was so peaceful. Property values exploded. I didn't even have My Ranch on the Market and a Doctor offered Me 1.9 million. Sold it and moved to Texas 15 years ago. Best decision I ever made.

Having been concerned about finances throughout my entire adulthood, it's captivating to observe this video and realize that I can confidently identify with level 6. Experiencing the freedom of not being preoccupied with the financial concerns that consumed me for numerous years is truly liberating. I suppose this is the result of putting in diligent effort for the future.

Must be really bad if CNBC has noticed this.

Unreasonable cost of living, outrageous housing market, wildfire crises, homeless crisis, high taxes, high regulations.

In this perilous time of recession, protecting your capital is much more important than making money. Basically because if you lose your capital, making money is much harder. ''Missing the train'' vs. ''losing your money''. There are a lot of trains, but if your money is gone, it's over. This is for stock holders.

Seeing what’s happening to our cities makes me mad I didn’t take up politics. The laws and policies are destroying these cities. They keep raising every tax you can think of and have no idea where it goes….I’m in NYC and with the amount of taxes we pay it should NOT look the way it does….mismanagement and a whole bunch of crooks

The rent is insanity and the average middle class family can’t afford a mortgage for even a 1 story house. Saved you 19 minutes.

The sad part is after the middle class leaves the people that are gonna be left are the wealthy and the homeless in California.

I admire the financial independence of people, But you can live better if you work a little more. After watching this I think there are people out there, on the extreme, who plan to die early just to be able to retire early. To each their own but to me, retirement isn't just about not having to work, it's about having the freedom to do whatever you might reasonably want, such as travel, buying things, enjoying life, etc. I don't think I could retire with less than $3m in income-generating investments, maybe $2m at the very minimum. I plan to work until I'm at least 45

My wife and I left San Diego, CA on 24 Jun 2020. It took me a while to convince my wife to leave San Diego due to her family living there. But I was never near enough to my family and with both my parents and my brother passing away, I needed to be closer to my sister in Florida. My other reasoning for wanting to leave CA was political, 2A, and cost of living. Since moving to a much better state, we own a bigger house (2660sq ft), pay less for our house payment, no state taxes, no property taxes and we are doing a lot better now. There are two family members in San Diego that stated they want to move out of CA also.

This is why whenever I see someone online bragging that they make $100k a year, I look at where they live.

The first "red flag", was people making $100k per year. Living in their cars, instead of an apartment or condo.

The problem that I don't see mentioned is that California of the past was so successful that people came here from all over the world for more than 170 years. The problems that we have, overpriced housing, homelessness ( mostly caused by the overpriced housing ) water shortages, over regulation etc. can all be traced back to overpopulation. As other states become overcrowded, they too will experience many similar issues. People that are complaining that they can't do what they used to in their formerly rural area and rising home prices, blaming California transplants. The real problem is that there are simply too many people in the world today.

I was born in California. And as much as I love the weather and such here. This exodus and all this bad stuff happening to California is a necessity. You can't stay forever at the peak, you have to fall to rockbottom to rebuild. Its just the natural cycle of everything.

It's simple. Citizens are leaving because of the cost of real estate. Companies are moving because they want to pay less taxes.

My dad told me his reasoning for leaving recently: “nice weather doesn’t pay the bills”... hit me hard

Very simple explanation: the costs, crime, and culture are awful and nobody is interested in paying for a negative experience.

California is going to need to realize as much as they would like a lot of expensive programs in place, they can't go as far as they want with lots of other states available for businesses to just shift over to. It isn't a move to a new country, just a hop over a few state lines just hours away.