Lots Of People Leaving California? (Los Angeles, San Francisco: unemployment, bankruptcy, university)

[JGC97]

Originally Posted by njbiodude

Low income people tend to have rent subsidies that are quite massive.

If they can’t get rent subsidies they’ll probably leave. But those that do will stay.

Puzzling to me how someone who must receive a subsidy to survive would have enough money to leave if they didn't have the subsidy. Would they give away all their belongings, hop a Greyhound and head to parts unknown? And where to? Renting another place would require a deposit and first month's rent. Not being facetious here. I'm genuinely curious how someone with so little would be able to accomplish that.

[njbiodude]

Originally Posted by HereOnMars

Puzzling to me how someone who must receive a subsidy to survive would have enough money to leave if they didn't have the subsidy. Would they give away all their belongings, hop a Greyhound and head to parts unknown? And where to? Renting another place would require a deposit and first month's rent. Not being facetious here. I'm genuinely curious how someone with so little would be able to accomplish that.

I mean if you can get a job beforehand and your housing costs drop thousands per month you save up for a security deposit and first months rent and get a U-Haul.

If you’re truly destitute you’re not going anywhere.

Same if you have your rent taken care of from the state.

[ohio_peasant]

Originally Posted by BGS91762

It all depends on when you bought your home. If you bought before the big price increases you can live comfortably . If not it’s a very expensive place to live.

Very much so. The change isn't over multiple generations, or even decades. It's since 2019. Here in the LA area, a simple 1920s bungalow that might have fetched $600K in 2019, now commands $1M+. That's an enormous change over a brief time... a watershed change, of "before" and "after".

Originally Posted by BabyBoomers2

What about the "fast-paced" lifestyle that many don't want, but many young Californians bring with them when they move? ...

I much prefer a “fast paced” lifestyle. It goes beyond politics or ethno-cultural identification. “Fast paced” means being comfortable with working 60-hour weeks, regularly dining-out instead of cooking, driving to the gym to run on the treadmill, paying somebody to walk your dog, and occasionally sitting in traffic in 6-lane (each way) traffic. OK, I don’t outright prefer traffic, but I do prefer the growth and economic dynamism typically concomitant with heavy traffic.

Originally Posted by blameyourself

...I don't believe for a second that the majority of people move for political reasons. ...

Politics almost certainly is a very minor consideration. But often by "politics" we really mean "culture". An example of culture is the prevailing level of religiosity... and whether it's Catholic, mainline Protestant, Southern Baptist, or something else. I compare in my current house-hunting adventures, rural SE Tennessee, and rural central New Hampshire. Both are heavily wooded hills, dotted with small towns. But the level and type of religiosity is very different.

Then there's the ethnic component. If you're Armenian or Persian, it's hard to beat LA, especially Glendale... whatever your politics or economics or job prospects. If you're Mexican, there is of course surfeit of options nationwide, but even so, there is particular appeal of east-LA. And so on.

It's a touchy and delicate subject, perhaps better suited for the Politics forum, but one might aver, with some evidence, that the preponderance of the "California exodus", at least from the Los Angeles region, is of what might be termed traditionally Western European origin white people... and not "ethnic" people. And to the extent that today, Anglo-White is associated with "conservative", it's tempting to give the migratory patterns a political slant.

[JGC97]

Originally Posted by njbiodude

I mean if you can get a job beforehand and your housing costs drop thousands per month you save up for a security deposit and first months rent and get a U-Haul.

Again, I'm not sure how one would achieve this as it makes sense to me that if someone could actually acquire that much money, they'd no longer be eligible for a subsidy.

Originally Posted by njbiodude

If you’re truly destitute you’re not going anywhere.

Same if you have your rent taken care of from the state.

Oh, if it were only so. I'm sorry but your ideas are the things dreams are made of. The real world isn't operating like that. It's not your fault that you don't know this because you don't struggle financially each month and probably aren't aware of the requirements for receiving rent relief or how long it takes to actually see it happen. See one example of how the covid rent relief program has worked out for one man in LA. https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/...elief-funding/ He's only one of many who are waiting for help to arrive.

[bad debt]

Originally Posted by saibot

No one dropped $1.8 million in her lap. She can only get the money if she sells the house, and she doesn't want to sell the house. You don't think it might be hard for a retiree suddenly to come up with an extra $20k, every year?

rofl. She doesn't want to sell the house so it doesn't qualify as a $1.8M windfall? Give me a break.

[njbiodude]

Originally Posted by HereOnMars

Again, I'm not sure how one would achieve this as it makes sense to me that if someone could actually acquire that much money, they'd no longer be eligible for a subsidy.

Oh, if it were only so. I'm sorry but your ideas are the things dreams are made of. The real world isn't operating like that. It's not your fault that you don't know this because you don't struggle financially each month and probably aren't aware of the requirements for receiving rent relief or how long it takes to actually see it happen. See one example of how the covid rent relief program has worked out for one man in LA. https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/...elief-funding/ He's only one of many who are waiting for help to arrive.

If you’re on SSI and getting HUD, SNAP, nearly free electricity, discount power and don’t need to work why leave?

If you can’t get these things and live with roommates working as a bartender you can certainly get a U Haul to Nevada why not? I know multiple people in similar situations that did just that.

I once moved out of state with about $700 in my account. I extended my credit card limit, stuffed all my stuff in my car and drove 600 miles. It turned out to be a great financial decision for me. I rented a room so didn’t have a security deposit. I think a lot of people fail to realize how cheap some states are.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by njbiodude

If you’re on SSI...

Do you know the percentage of people in California who receive SSI? It's .02871794871.

https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/stat...ca-table4.html

Originally Posted by njbiodude

...and getting HUD, SNAP, nearly free electricity, discount power and don’t need to work why leave?

Are you aware of who actually qualifies for SNAP? (It's called CalFresh in California.)

Originally Posted by njbiodude

If you can’t get these things and live with roommates working as a bartender you can certainly get a U Haul to Nevada why not?

I know multiple people in similar situations that did just that.

Often when you make an unsubstantiated claim on the California forum, you say that you know multiple people who did what you claim. While anecdotal evidence exists, it isn't really evidence of data.

[njbiodude]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

Do you know the percentage of people in California who receive SSI? It's .02871794871.

https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/stat...ca-table4.html



Are you aware of who actually qualifies for SNAP? (It's called CalFresh in California.)



Often when you make an unsubstantiated claim on the California forum, you say that you know multiple people who did what you claim. While anecdotal evidence exists, it isn't really evidence of data.

I did it a little over a decade ago, moved from NJ to a southern state for a job that paid barely over $20/hr. I arranged all the stuff in advance (housing, job offer) and simply got in a car and drove. I looked into getting a one-way U haul which wasn’t particularly expensive either. You were able to drop it off in the new city. I’ve used U Hauls to move multiple times in the last decade, not a big deal.

The idea that people can’t move is absurd. The amount of money people can save moving from places like the Bay Area or LA on housing is insane. People with generic jobs making <100k/yr will usually do better elsewhere.

A lot of people have relatives in other places too. Move in with a relative for 1-3 months and your cost of moving is basically a U Haul (assuming you don’t own a home you have to sell). I actually did it when I moved to CA almost a decade ago and lived with them a month before I got a decent place to live. Ended up paying $1200 to ship my car 2800 miles full of my stuff so it wasn’t really that hard.

[Alonso Gil]

Originally Posted by saibot

I actually don't know many people who have left California in the past ~10 years but I did just hear from a friend who is planning to move. What sent her over the edge was Prop. 19.

Back in the 1960s her parents bought two small (under 1200 sq ft) houses side by side in Carlsbad, great location, a few blocks from the beach. As time wore on her father passed away, and her brother moved in with her mom. My friend and her family lived in the other house.

Recently the mother passed away, leaving the two houses to her two children. However, whereas the brother gets to enjoy the same low Prop. 13 tax base because the house he is living in was his mother's primary residence, my friend just saw her house reassessed to $1.8 million. Being now in retirement, she simply cannot afford the now $1200/mo property tax and is selling and moving to Utah.

Too bad, so sad. It matters not that my friend has lived there for decades and the house has been in the family for 60 years. Under Prop. 19 a homeowner can only bequeath one house to a child/grandchild without triggering a reassessment. But yay, a win for the state of California because it will get the increased tax payments regardless.

This is easy -- reverse mortgage. She would still have the majority of the home's value to herself. There's no need to mortgage the entire thing. The bank's share would easily provide her with $1,200 a month.

At an interest rate of 6%/yr, a $1.8 million 30 year mortgage would be $10,000 a month!

[njbiodude]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

Do you know the percentage of people in California who receive SSI? It's .02871794871.

https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/stat...ca-table4.html



Are you aware of who actually qualifies for SNAP? (It's called CalFresh in California.)



Often when you make an unsubstantiated claim on the California forum, you say that you know multiple people who did what you claim. While anecdotal evidence exists, it isn't really evidence of data.

According to your chart about 3% of people are receiving Federal or state supplementary aid.