Dunno how to make this fucking link work.
The number of people packing up and moving out of the Bay Area just hit its highest level in more than a decade.
Carole Dabak spent 40 years living in San Jose and now she’s part of the mass exodus that is showing no signs of slowing down.
“I loved it here when I first got here. I really loved it here. But it’s just not the same,” Dabak said.
Of course people come and go from the Bay Area all the time, but for the first time in a long time, more people are leaving the Bay Area than are coming in. And the number one place in the country for out-migration is now, right here.
Russell Hancock with Joint Venture Silicon Valley said, “Silicon Valley has been this place that is growing. And it was mostly growing because…people relocating here and relocating from other parts of the world. That’s changing.”
Joint Venture Silicon Valley’s own study of the out-migration says workers are moving to Sacramento, Austin, and Portland due to a number of factors. But topping the list is the high cost of housing.
“You can’t even contemplate getting into the housing market here,” Hancock said. “And I don’t mean just service workers, I mean highly skilled professionals. The tech elite are having a hard time affording reasonable housing in Silicon Valley. So this is difficult, this makes it very difficult for employers trying to recruit.”
Operators of a San Jose U-Haul business say one of their biggest problems is getting its rental moving vans back because so many are on a one-way ticket out of town.
Dabak cites crowding, crime and politics as the reasons for her own exodus.
“We don’t like it here anymore. You know, we don’t like this sanctuary state status and just the politics here,” she said.
She plans to sell her home for about $1 million, buy a much larger place near Nashville for less than half that and retire closer to family and friends.
Nationwide, the cities with the highest inflows, according to Redfin are Phoenix, Las Vegas, Atlanta, and Nashville.
So it seems San Francisco, one of the most populous cities in America, is experiencing a mass exodus of people leaving the city and moving elsewhere. Chiefly among the reason for this, as the article states, are crime, high cost of living and overcrowding. I see this as an inevitable result of the city and the state's policies regarding both taxes and immigration. California as a state is no stranger to having large numbers of people leave. People have already been leaving California in large numbers. San Francisco in particular just seems to be taking it particularly hard.
Thoughts?