A couple who once loved living in Southern California say they had to move south to afford a home.
Jillian Lovato and her wife, Jamie, had a good life in Orange County, but felt they needed to leave the state to achieve their dream of homeownership.
“My wife Jamie and I knew we wouldn’t be able to buy the house we wanted in California,” Jillian said. Real estate agent.com.
“We felt like we had to live on rent all our lives.”
The couple traveled around Texas while making their decision and settled on Austin as their new city in 2021.
Jillian Lovato and her wife, Jamie, decided to move from Orange County, California, to Austin, Texas, after realizing they “would have had to rent their entire lives.”
Overall, the apartments in Orange County, seen above, have a median rent of $3,540, according to Realtor.com.
In Austin, the Lovatos have been able to purchase a home large enough for their dogs, with access to local woods and streams.
They are just one couple among many who have decided to leave California amid the state’s soaring housing prices.
A University of California, Irvine survey released Friday and cited by The Los Angeles Times He said more than a third of Orange County residents are considering moving elsewhere due to the cost of living.
The average monthly price for a one-bedroom rental in Irvine in August is more than $2,500, an increase of 1 percent compared to last year.
In Anaheim, the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment is just under $2,000, up 1.8 percent from 2023. Overall, apartments have a median rent in Orange County of $3,540, according to Realtor.com. Meanwhile, in Austin, the median rent price is $2,300.
Meanwhile, Austin, pictured above, has a median rent price of $2,300.
Texas is the most popular destination for those looking to leave the state: An estimated 102,000 California residents will move to the Lone Star State in 2022, drawn by the low cost of living and the absence of a state income tax.
Up to 8.1 percent of homebuyers in Texas are from California.
Realtor.com senior economist Jiayi Xu noted that the median sales price in California in July 2024 ($777,900) was nearly double the price in Texas ($380,000).
The significant movement of Californians to Texas has given rise to the term “Texafornia.”
According to Realtor.com, other popular destinations include Arizona, Nevada, Florida, Oregon, Washington and Tennessee.
Pictured: Map of California and its counties that have lost population in the last five years
The flow of Californians to Texas has marked the largest state-to-state movement in the U.S. in the past two years, but it has slowed from more than 107,000 people in 2021 to more than 102,000 residents in 2022 as real estate in Texas’ largest cities has become more expensive.
Meanwhile, in Florida, the number of former Californians rose from more than 37,000 people in 2021 to more than 50,000 people in 2022, and in Arizona, it rose from more than 69,000 people to 74,000 people during that same time period.
California had a net loss of more than 113,000 residents last year, a number that would have been much higher if not for people moving to the state from other countries and a natural increase due to more births than deaths.
More than 343,000 people left California for another state last year, the highest number of any U.S. state.
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