There has been a lot of flight out of the state of California in recent years for many reasons that include high rent, high taxes, high crime, and a lower quality of life.
Many former Californians have moved to Texas and Florida, seeking out cheaper lifestyles and, for many, more liberty.
But now, a new phenomenon is occurring: Californians continue to flee the state but are increasingly moving south of the border — to Mexico.
“I would say at least half are coming down from California,” Darrell Graham of Baja123 Real Estate Group told CNBC. “Suddenly the cost of taxes, the crime rates, the politics, all the things that people are unhappy with in California are wanting to come down to Mexico.”
“California continuously ranks high as one of the country’s most expensive states to live in,” CNBC noted. “The median asking price for a home in California is about $797,470 — only 25% of the state’s households could afford that in the fourth quarter of 2021.”
“Monthly rent in Mexico can average as little as $430 per month, while rents can average as high as $1,500 north of the border in San Diego,” The Daily Mail pointed out.
Last year, 280,000 more people moved out of California than moved to the Golden State.
“Certain neighborhoods are now becoming too expensive for Mexican citizens to live in because most of the time people that are actually buying the property developments are being able to do so because they either make money in US dollars, or because they are working remotely,” Ariel Ruiz Soto, a policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, stated.
“Recent polls by researchers at U.C. Berkeley (2019) and U.C. San Diego (2021) indicate that half of Californians have considered moving out of state,” Kenneth P. Miller, author of “Texas vs. California: A History of Their Struggle for the Future of America,” wrote in March.
“Although California is a natural paradise, it also is plagued by various forms of social disorder, including, in many places, crime, vandalism, and scandalous levels of homelessness. Others complain about the state’s political drift,” Miller added.
One native Californian who moved to Nashville, Tennessee told , “Finding a house was more difficult than anticipated, but we are extremely happy with where we live. We love our leafy, traditional community where the houses are spread out and private.
“It’s family-friendly. I wanted to settle down with my family in a traditional, safe, suburban community. In California, this American Dream felt increasingly unobtainable,” the former Californian added.
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