53 percent of Californians want to leave the state, according to new survey

53 percent of Californians want to leave the state, according to new survey

Alix Martichoux, SFGATE | on February 13, 2019



Photo: Paul Sakuma

A moving truck is shown at a house that was sold in Palo Alto, Calif., Tuesday, June 19, 2012. A new survey shows more than half of Californians are considering leaving the state.


Dreaming of greener (read: cheaper) pastures? You're not alone.

According to a new survey by Edelman Intelligence, 53 percent of Californians are considering moving out of state due to the high cost of living. Millennials are even more likely to flee the Golden State — 63 percent of them said they want to.


Bay Area residents surveyed were especially sensitive to affordability issues, and it's no surprise. The median home value in San Francisco is $1.37 million, according to Zillow, and $1.09 million in San Jose. In Edelman's survey, 76 percent of Bay Area residents say they consider cost and availability of housing to be a serious issue.


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Sixty-two percent also call homelessness a very serious issue for California.

It appears the housing and homelessness crises have led to a pessimistic outlook: 62 percent of those surveyed say the best days of living in California are behind them.

The trend is backed up by much of SFGATE's past reporting. We've spoken with people who've left California for the Pacific Northwest, Texas and Denver — all popular destinations for Bay Area ex-pats. Nearly everyone we talked to cites the high cost of living as the primary reason they left. Others were looking for a slower pace of life, lower taxes, less traffic and more time with family.