Many California residents who move out of the state are finding substantial savings on housing costs and an easier pathway to homeownership as affordability concerns weigh.
A recent analysis by the California Policy Lab at UC Berkeley, using data that anonymously tracks the same households over time from 2016 to 2025, found that Californians who relocate tend to move to more affordable areas and are more likely to become homeowners in the process.
The report found that on average, Californians leaving the state end up in neighborhoods where housing costs are $672 less per month – having faced average costs of $2,376 in California versus $1,705 in their new community. The analysis includes mortgage or rent payments, utilities, property taxes and insurance for monthly housing costs.
Renters relocating out of California saw rents lower by about 30%, or $631 a month, in their new neighborhood. Homeowners also find more affordable pricing for the median home, which costs about $396,000, or 48%, less than the median where they lived in California.
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That dynamic helps make homeownership more common in their new neighborhood, with 60% owning their homes versus 53% in the California neighborhood they departed.
By contrast, those moving within the state of California saw slightly higher costs, with average monthly housing costs of $2,263 rising to $2,277 for their new residence in the Golden State.
People moving to California generally faced a significant jump in their average monthly housing costs relative to their former neighborhood, which rose from $1,754 at their prior out-of-state home to $2,418 in their new community in California.
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After seven years, people who left California are 48%, or 11 percentage points, more likely to become homeowners than they were before living in California. People who moved to California were only 27%, or 6 percentage points, more likely to be homeowners after seven years.
“The price tag has gone up on the California dream, and many families are leaving the state for more affordable places,” Evan White, executive director of the California Policy Lab at UC Berkeley and a co-author of the study, told Realtor.com.
“The difference these moves make is stark. Their destination neighborhoods are half as expensive, and they end up much more likely to own a home within just a few years,” White added.
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The California Policy Lab’s analysis also looked at the states with net migration flows to and from California.
The state with the largest net inflow of residents moving there from California was Nevada, which received 81 more people per 10,000 annually from California on a net basis from 2016 to 2025.
Idaho, Oregon and Arizona were the next three states with the largest net in-flows, which amounted to 64, 37 and 36 per 10,000 over the last decade, respectively.
Other states that have seen large influxes of new residents from around the country were less popular with departing Californians. Texas netted 11 more people from California per 10,000 each year, while Tennessee gained 13 and Florida just four.
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