IRVINE, Calif.–New real estate and census data supports what plenty of anecdotal evidence already has shown: Americans are moving to the southern U.S.–including away from California.
The exception: Oregon and Vermont, which continue to see a net increase in residents.
RealtyTrac’s March 2016 issue of its Housing News Report said Americans are in search of a warmer climate, affordable housing, lower taxes and less congested cities.
Titled “The Next Great Migration of ‘Housing Refugees’ On The Move,” the article looks at recent housing migration patterns in the United States, including so-called “Housing Refugees.”
“This 20th century movement west, which has dominated American demographic patterns for decades, may now be reversing itself in the 21st century as rising housing costs, stagnant job creation, restrictive land-use laws and no-tax states, pull Californians, Midwesterners and Northeasterners eastward and southward to less costly regions and more business-friendly states in the Sun Belt,” the RealtyTrac report said.
It noted United Van Lines said that after Oregon, the leading destinations for moves were South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, Vermont and Texas
For the first time in almost a decade, Florida added more people than California between July 2014 and July 2015, according to the Census Bureau. Florida gained 365,703 people and is now the nation’s third most populous state, after California and Texas.