California Housing’s Low Supply Propels Population Elsewhere

Many come to California to visit, and don’t want to leave because of the weather. However, with home prices rising, data from CoreLogic has noted that for every person moving to the sunny state, three more are packing up and heading to states like Texas, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona and Washington.

Beacon Economics released three reports this year which found that 625,000 more Californians moved out of the state between 2007 and 2014. Despite the state’s “employment boom,” Beacon Economic’s Chris Thornberg notes that “housing affordability and supply represent a big problem.”

According to Thornberg, builders are 160,000 units shy of meeting the demand, which is pushing costs up. Coming second to last behind Alaska, California has filed 21.5 permits for housing per every 100 newcomers to the state between 2005 and 2015.

With baby boomers heading out of state to stretch their wallets further, and millennials staying at home longer to crawl out of student debt payments, the housing market in California is lacking the supply that’s needed at an affordable cost.