A survey from StorageCafe shows that the Great California Exodus of the 2020s is not only not slowing down, it's speeding up:

Not only is California to Texas migration not slowing down but the route is also getting more crowded. Overall, 111K people - or 300 people a day - exchanged the sunny Californian skies for Texan ones in 2021, the peak period of the last decade and a whopping 80% increase compared to 2012 figures.

The authors drily note that, while there are still some folks making the reverse journey, "Texans tend to move to California in much smaller number."

So why are folks fleeing California in record numbers? "Affordability" and "job options" are two top reasons. California has strangled the lifeblood out of its own economy and made living there a six-figure affair. Increasingly, you simply cannot afford to put down roots there unless you are making serious bank.

The benefits of moving from California aren't just nominal. They multiply across several economic metrics:

In addition to lower housing costs, transplants also get somewhat larger living spaces, with single family homes in Texas being 17% bigger than Californian residences. Utilities are generally lower-priced in Texas as well, roughly 20% less than in California.

Yep: Bigger and cheaper houses, cheaper water, cheaper electricity, better jobs, better quality of life: What exactly is the downside here? Oh no, you might have to smell some wood smoke from the Michelin-starred barbecue joint down the road! How awful.

Notably, Millennials are the largest demographic fleeing California.

That age group will generally have the most to gain and the least to lose from leaving. They're in the prime of their working years, they're starting families, they want as much bang for their buck as they can get.

And they're not going to get that in California.

I'll leave you with this chart showing the different between home prices in both states: