Here are the reasons why people leave OC and SoCal (Los Angeles: transfer, taxes)

[Coldjensens]

We left OC some time ago as did a majority of our friends. Lots of reasons, but the top reason was it is a poor atmosphere in which to raise a family.

Most other reasons related directly or indirectly to that. Lack of space, no rivers lakes streams or forests, anyplace with decent schools is insanely expensive and insanely competitive. Comparative housing quality for the cost.

Vaccinations were also on many people's lists, but down an way and the issue was not forced vaccinations, but the number of unvaccinated kids in the schools and the fact diseases most Americans think no longer exist were popping up in the schools.

The other reasons varied wildly, overall cost of living, weather was too boring, politics, too much concrete, all kinds of things. However the consistent top reason was they just wanted to find a better place for raising kids. Somewhere they can play freely outside. Somewhere more wholesome.

[expatCA]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

We left OC some time ago as did a majority of our friends. Lots of reasons, but the top reason was it is a poor atmosphere in which to raise a family.

Most other reasons related directly or indirectly to that. Lack of space, no rivers lakes streams or forests, anyplace with decent schools is insanely expensive and insanely competitive. Comparative housing quality for the cost.

Vaccinations were also on many people's lists, but down an way and the issue was not forced vaccinations, but the number of unvaccinated kids in the schools and the fact diseases most Americans think no longer exist were popping up in the schools.

The other reasons varied wildly, overall cost of living, weather was too boring, politics, too much concrete, all kinds of things. However the consistent top reason was they just wanted to find a better place for raising kids. Somewhere they can play freely outside. Somewhere more wholesome.

True for many. Most of the people I grew up with there, are now living in another State, just as I do.

[MrJester]

Originally Posted by saibot

Aw, come on. You make RSM sound like Palm Springs or Phoenix. We're going on 21 years here and we've never even had central a/c. About 5-6 years ago we got a small portable unit that we use for a few hours a day maybe 2 weeks out of the summer.

And "freezing" at night? It might get down into the upper 60s in the summer. Cool enough for a sweater maybe if you're the kind of person who walks around outside all night, but hardly freezing. Anyway, I don't see how very warm, humid nights are more comfortable than cool nights.

You must live in Dana Point or Newport. RSM regularly sees 100+ degrees, and the heat index has reached 115 before. Everyone in RSM has AC, and uses it everyday.

55 degrees in the morning in the summer in RSM is pretty typical.

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by Hbs2018

From my peer group I know one guy that stayed permanently in Boston after school. Everyone else currently lives in CA (bay area, LA, OC, or SD).

We did that too (most of my Peer group). It was wonderful for ten or fifteen years. but. . . kids. . everyone left.

[ajams22]

Originally Posted by seain dublin

I am one who did that, but I came back.

For as liberal as Oregon claims to be they don't like people from CA. Still very xenophobic up there. People are polite but not friendly, and once you mentioned CA(and Southern CA) you could get anything from an eye roll to a derogatory comment.

And Oregon isn't all that cheap either.

I also know several people who left CA(some for TX) and came back.

It's not so "one way" as you make it sound.

This all the way.

I was born and raised in Oregon, and definitely noticed the disdain for Californians once I visited Los Angeles in college and decided this is where I wanted to live.

Everyone I knew who made comments about "those damn Californians" that moved up to Oregon also, incidentally, loved all the cultural amenities that came with those people moving there (Bend, specifically).

My mom lived just north in Redmond her entire life, and she said Central Oregon was just a dusty, hot, boring place to be before the influx of Californians brought actual things to do. All anecdotal, of course. But still.

[expatCA]

Originally Posted by Hbs2018

From my peer group I know one guy that stayed permanently in Boston after school. Everyone else currently lives in CA (bay area, LA, OC, or SD).

Yes, those who grew up in CA are leaving and those who did not are coming, though in smaller numbers.

Foreign immigration (both legal and illegal) and babies are driving the population up.

CA used to be wonderful for those who grew up there and then the growth changed it. For the younger generation it in many cases,it is more appealing than where they are from originally.

Things change,

[saibot]

Originally Posted by MrJester

You must live in Dana Point or Newport. RSM regularly sees 100+ degrees, and the heat index has reached 115 before. Everyone in RSM has AC, and uses it everyday.

55 degrees in the morning in the summer in RSM is pretty typical.

No, I live in RSM. I will have lived in RSM for 21 years come May, and we have never had central a/c, so your statement is false.

It would be false anyway because even the people who do have a/c don't use it "every day."

Yes, there have been some very hot days off and on during the summer, but nothing we couldn't deal with by using fans and (within the past 5 years) a small portable a/c unit in one room.

[DKM]

Originally Posted by expatCA

Yes, those who grew up in CA are leaving and those who did not are coming, though in smaller numbers.

Foreign immigration (both legal and illegal) and babies are driving the population up.

CA used to be wonderful for those who grew up there and then the growth changed it. For the younger generation it in many cases,it is more appealing than where they are from originally.

Things change,

It's wonderful now, that's why we moved here. I think its better than it ever was. 10 or 15 years ago I would have never moved here.

[DKM]

Originally Posted by Hbs2018

My group of friends is just now starting to have kids and all of them plan to raise their kids in CA. Only one guy is leaving and he doesnt plan to have any kids at all. He is getting out of the day race and moving to Costa Rica.

There is no way in hell I would ever move to the upper midwest just to raise kids. If I ever had to experience another polar vortex I would just end it all. I was in NYC this January for the blizzard bomb or whatever that was. What a goddam disaster.

Yeah try Oregon, its just as bad. I moved to CA to raise our kids, OC was runner up to where we went but that was more job driven than anything. RSM or Aliso Veijo would have been great but we love where we are at too...

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by expatCA

CA used to be wonderful for those who grew up there and then the growth changed it.

I'd say that 85% of the people I grew up with in the suburbs of Los Angeles have stayed. They're all over southern CA: L.A., Orange County, Santa Barbara, Ventura. Those who left did so either because of job transfers or because they went out of state to college and liked that particular area of the country.

Many younger people of our kids' generation (Millennials) have stayed, despite the fact that they have not had the opportunities for jobs or homeownership that were available when we grew up here.