There was a great migration from early in the COVID-19 pandemic throughout 2021 into 2022. People moved from expensive coastal states to places inland like Arizona and Florida. Housing was less expensive in these states, and some people liked the lifestyles and weather better than in places such as California and New York. (These cities attracted the most new residents last year.)
The migration was slowed by higher mortgage rates, which have cooled the rate at which people could buy new homes, but the move has not ended. According to a new study about net migration by moving service provider Hire A Helper, California had the highest number of people who moved from a state versus those who moved in. The data for “The Top 10 States and Cities of 2023: 2023-24 HireAHelper Migration Report” came from 75,000 “moves book” and Census Bureau data.
The net loss of people who left California was −44%, followed by New Jersey’s −42%. This matches data from the Census Bureau. California lost 75,423 residents, according to the bureau’s 2023 vintage population estimates, which was the most among all states. This reversed a multidecade trend of people moving to California from places like the Midwest and Northeast.
Among the things that make California unattractive is the cost of living. A study on affordability by state from the World Population Review puts California as third among the most expensive states, just behind Hawaii and Massachusetts.
California also has some of the most expensive cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego.
These are the states people are migrating from the fastest:
- California (−43.7%)
- New Jersey (−41.6%)
- Louisiana (−31.1%)
- Illinois (−30.0%)
- New Mexico (−18.9%)
- Virginia (−16.8%)
- Connecticut (−15.8%)
- Maryland (−15.3%)
- New York (−13.9%)
- Nevada (−5.6%)
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