Here are the reasons why people leave OC and SoCal (Orange: county, traffic)

[savvysearch]

Originally Posted by LuvSouthOC

Why some people are fleeing Southern California - The Orange County Register


-Forcing parents to vaccinate

Good. Spread the plague and measles in some other state, please.

[Tex?Il?]

Originally Posted by LuvSouthOC

Why some people are fleeing Southern California - The Orange County Register


A few reasons mentioned:
-Cost/affordability
-Can cash out
-Traffic
-QOL
-Forcing parents to vaccinate

Cost/affordability/can cash out is probably the top reason.

Traffic - sure, especially if you have a long commute and have to commute during normal commuting times.

QOL - yes, but that is subjective and related to the others. If you could afford the nicest and most desirable areas then the QOL is better.


I really doubt "forcing parents to vaccinate" is a major reason for most people. The % of the population that is anti-vaccine is tiny fringe. Though in California its high enough that there were enough parents who didn't vaccinate - to have led to these outbreaks such as the Measles outbreak in Disneyland - thus prompting the government to enact mandatory laws.

Other states that tend to have high % of alternative health followers like Oregon and Colorado I'm sure will follow suit soon, once they have measles outbreaks.

[Tonestar]

High cost of living, population density and never ending traffic are the reasons my family is relocating to northeast Florida. I am a Cali native living here almost half a century and this place has lost its luster for me.

When my shift used to end at 5:30pm, it took me 1 hour to drive 12 miles to my house. No joke! And now traffic seems to be the norm no matter time or day. A 2 bedroom and 1 bath 800' ft. apartment with no covered parking are now renting close to $3k a month. A house rental is even more astronomical. And they keep on building...right on top of each other. I see these beautiful homes on 80' lots starting in the low $1 millions. You get to stare out of your kitchen window right into your neighbor's living room.

In a nutshell, the middle class is being driven out of the state. What will be left are the super wealthy who will reside along the coast and the dirt poor who will reside further inland. And even living inland will still be expensive by most other states standards.

[DKM]

Originally Posted by shoeprano27

to folks that has gone to and came back, not having to pay taxes couldnt keep you to stay in Oregon?

I moved here from Oregon and my tax rate dropped, a lot. Sales taxes doesn't come close to the income taxes I saved by moving here.

[kttam186290]

Originally Posted by expatCA

Check the Idaho forum and you will see minimal complaints. I lived in Idaho for a couple of years and everyone was welcoming and I had a lot of friends move there too. Most moving there are conservatives and making Idaho solidly right and the people love that.

You mean, the other right-wing people love that.

Most native-born, multi-generational Idahoans don't like it.

These are the people who would benefit from wage increase laws, from legislation supporting public education in Idaho and who are socially more moderate. Nevertheless, they constantly have their wishes voted down by conservative newcomers and transplants.

Native Idahoans don't have the same baggage that conservative transplants take with them, but they suffer from ongoing QOL issues after the polls close and the transplant votes have been tallied.

[mrwumpus]

I am an OC native and it took me three years to stop missing OC. By that time, on our last visit, we could no longer handle the din and traffic. Even my kids were bothered by it. Having lived in Montana for three years, we just couldn't handle the differences anymore. It feels claustrophobic and chaotic.

I still miss the people who were more cosmopolitan and diverse and interesting.

It is fun to chuckle to myself knowing I am paying for a house on a bigger lot than the millionaires in OC get to own, yet paying less per month than a 2BR apartment rents for in OC.

[Coldjensens]

We moved away. (to Michigan) reasons:
1. Family. We needed support from family. Cannot get it from 2500 miles away.
2. Greenery. Forests, grass, water and clean air. Open places for kids to play.
3. Crowdedness, but not just crowdedness. The whole I live in a bee hive thing. Constantly in a rush, always late.
4. Moral and physical atmosphere for raising kids.
5. School costs. We had two kids going to OCHSA ($2600 a year, not bad) and three youngers going to private school. One was on a scholarship, on was just about to start and one we were paying for ($12,000). The school said they were not sure they would have funding to continue the scholarship. We were looking at $36,000 in tuition (plus and other $5200 for OCHSA) and we could not find public school options that we felt would work with any certainty.
6. Real estate cost. Mostly because we wanted to move away from a 40 story office they were going to built a few blocks form our house, but we could not find any place with decent school options where we would not have to massively downgrade our house. Also no places with good schools had the type of housing/architecture and layout we liked. On top of that, we bought our home for 4175,000 and it was taxed at $175,000. We sold it for $757,000. To move to a comparably priced house we would have had to pay something like $10,000 in property tax (plus likely mello roos). That was impossible, but if we went much below $750,000 in an area with decent schools, we would have to move to a condo.
7. Weather - just my wife. She was sick of the "boring" California weather.
8. Just to do something new.



Now the kids are grown and leaving Michigan My extended family is passing or leaving Michigan. There is little to keep us here and we may move eventually. However we have no desire to move back to California. Been there done that. Not sure where we would rather be. Maybe up north. However our plan is to buy an RV, ditch the house and just move around. That plan would include spending some months in California here and there mostly because we have many friends there. There are still some places I would like to see or enjoy again, but it might be hard to convince my wife to spend a significant amount of time there. It is just too crazy busy/hectic. Plus there are too many other places that we have not been already If only one of our kids would move there (one did interview for a job in Sacramento- but they have not contacted her for several months so that is probably dead.). I think I would like to spend a month or two in California every year.

[Burkmere]

Originally Posted by mrwumpus

I am an OC native and it took me three years to stop missing OC. By that time, on our last visit, we could no longer handle the din and traffic. Even my kids were bothered by it. Having lived in Montana for three years, we just couldn't handle the differences anymore. It feels claustrophobic and chaotic.

I still miss the people who were more cosmopolitan and diverse and interesting.

It is fun to chuckle to myself knowing I am paying for a house on a bigger lot than the millionaires in OC get to own, yet paying less per month than a 2BR apartment rents for in OC.

I'm chuckling all the way to the bank myself. It feels so good. Buh bye.

[silverkris]

Originally Posted by kttam186290

You mean, the other right-wing people love that.

Most native-born, multi-generational Idahoans don't like it.

These are the people who would benefit from wage increase laws, from legislation supporting public education in Idaho and who are socially more moderate. Nevertheless, they constantly have their wishes voted down by conservative newcomers and transplants.

Native Idahoans don't have the same baggage that conservative transplants take with them, but they suffer from ongoing QOL issues after the polls close and the transplant votes have been tallied.

There is some resentment from California transplants moving to other states - they're sometimes called "equity locusts" because their presence and purchases of homes which appear low cost by CA standards drive up the real estate prices for the locals.

[rikity]

I came very close to packing and moving to Texas. Family reasons kept me in OC. I dont regret it much as you make the most of it. I still hate the traffic and high cost of living. However we try to enjoy the most of what makes So Cal so unique. We have beach days quite often now and on certain day, we also get to go up to Big Bear and enjoy the snow on the same weekend. There's definitely a reason why so many people want to live here and you just have to enjoy it or else you will be miserable with the negatives of being here