Census Bureau data show that Californians are still leaving their state.
Census Bureau data show that Californians are still leaving their state. Today, U-Haul released its annual survey of net migration patterns using its trucks: “California experienced the greatest net loss of do-it-yourself movers in U-Haul equipment and ranks 50th for the fifth consecutive year.” By contrast, the top five states in the positive column were South Carolina, Texas, North Carolina, Florida, and Tennessee. As the company reports:
South Carolina climbed three spots in the rankings to unseat Texas, which was the No. 1 growth state for the previous three years (2021-23). Of all the U-Haul movers coming and going from the Palmetto State in 2024, more than 51.7% were arrivals. Texas has ranked first or second among U-Haul Growth States each year since 2016. Florida has been fourth or higher every year since 2015. New York, at No. 47 on the list, has its lowest growth ranking in a decade. Oklahoma (+30), Indiana (+19) and Maine (+18) are the biggest risers year-over-year on the U-Haul Growth Index. Colorado (-31), Nevada (-24), Wyoming (-22) and New Mexico (-21) saw the biggest slides in 2024.
Some Californians who want to stay put and save their state are fighting back, as Ryan Mills reported from Huntington Beach. But public opinion in the state is more despairing than combative. A poll conducted from November 6-22 by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found that Californians across the political spectrum and across racial and ethnic lines are giving up on the American Dream, and expect things in California to get worse, with a majority declaring the American Dream dead and only a third still believing in it:
One in three Californians (33%) think the American Dream still holds true, while 52 percent think it once held true but no longer does, and 15 percent think it never did. Across partisan groups, four in ten or less believe the American Dream still holds true (39% Republicans, 32% Democrats, 29% independents). Forty-two percent of Asian Americans believe the American Dream still holds true, while 32 percent of whites, 30 percent of Latinos, and 24 percent of African Americans believe this. . . .
Seven in ten (70%) think children growing up in California today will be worse off financially than their parents. Republicans (80%) and independents (79%) are more likely than Democrats (67%) to think this, while whites (78%) are more likely than other racial/ethnic groups to hold this view (66% Asian Americans, 64% African Americans, 61% Latinos). . . . Most Californians (56%) think California will have bad times financially in the next 12 months, including majorities of adults across regions (58% Central Valley, 56% Los Angeles, 55% Inland Empire, 55% San Francisco Bay Area, 52% Orange/San Diego).
According to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data, unemployment in California is 5.4 percent, a rate exceeded only in Nevada and the District of Columbia. A Quicken Loans analysis from November 2024 found that California is second only in cost of living to Hawaii, which has obvious supply issues with being in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. California ranked first in transportation costs, first in top marginal income tax rates, second in median home costs, and third in grocery costs: “Groceries cost 12% more than the national average, while utilities cost 41.9% more and transportation 41% more. California’s median household income is far higher than the national median: $95,521 versus $77,719, respectively. The median income falls into the 9.3% tax bracket, which is relatively high. The top marginal rate is 13.3%, the highest in the country.”
No wonder Californians increasingly believe that the American Dream is dead — or at least that you have to move elsewhere to find it.