After a half-decade of Californians moving to places like Texas and Florida, an unlikely state has been supplying new residents to California.
New Jersey, a similarly expensive and densely populated state, saw more residents move to California in 2022 than the other way around, a rarity amid the state's population exodus. It was one of eight states that were part of a reverse exodus phenomenon and the state with the highest net number of transplants to California.
Among those who moved from the Garden State to the Golden State was Korri Sammad, 26, who moved from South Orange, New Jersey, to Los Angeles in 2021 to pursue her career in performance art.
He moved with $1,200 in his pocket. “I didn't have a job or anything, I just tried to figure it out,” she said. Her jobs included serving at a Dave and Buster's restaurant and then working in strip clubs, where her job “was to raise money for the dancers.”
After nine months in Los Angeles, Sammad moved in with a cousin in Hayward. Since then, she has been working and performing, primarily rapping in gay bars up and down the West Coast. “I had like 25 shows in a year,” she said. “I've definitely had a lot more access being in California.”
Although Sammad misses “the vibe of the people” in New Jersey, where he believes people move faster because of the cold, he believes California has changed his life and perspective. He plans to stay.
In recent years, California has seen a net exodus to most other states, and experts attribute the population shift primarily to California's high housing costs. But a handful of states have bucked that trend, sending transplants to the Golden State at a time when more people are moving. New Jersey, one of the most densely populated states in the country, has recently seen the largest net exodus of residents moving to California.
In 2022, the so-called California exodus caused 818,000 Californians to leave for other states, while 476,000 moved away, resulting in a total national loss of 342,000 in the Golden State.
The exodus was highlighted by the herds that left for Texas. The five states that saw the most net arrivals from California (Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Florida and Idaho) each had between 20,000 and 60,000 more people arrive in the Golden State.
By contrast, the eight states that were net contributors to California's population totaled a net contribution of fewer than 15,000 people. In other words, the size of the net exodus to each state has been much larger than the number of transplants moving to California.
More than 13,000 New Jerseyans moved to California in 2022, and fewer than 7,000 Californians moved to New Jersey. Net migration to California (nearly 7,000 people) was the highest of any state. Illinois came in second, with net immigration to California of about 4,000 people.
Nebraska, with 2,000 more leaving for California than arriving, was the third largest country.
In total, 41 of 49 states recorded more arrivals of Californians than departures to the Golden State.
Typically, experts point to the state's housing and affordability crisis as the primary driver of immigration decisions.
However, New Jerseyans face “many of the same problems as Californians in terms of cost of living and taxes,” said Ashley Koning, research assistant professor and director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Surveys at Rutgers University. -New Brunswick.
In a 2023 survey, a third of New Jersey residents surveyed said they would want to leave New Jersey if they had the chance, he said, adding that he was surprised that those who left were going somewhere that “certainly isn't a savings of costs to anyone. half.”
Koning listed several possibilities for why residents of his home state might make the decision.
“It could be something as simple as the weather,” he theorized. “We experience all four seasons in a way that many parts of California don't.”
The survey suggests that “it could very well be a movement among millennials and younger adults,” Koning said. A similar lack of affordability in the two states suggests “it's more a question of environment and potential job opportunities” in tech, she said.
The cost of living was not a factor in Sammad's move. Hayward is a suburb of San Francisco, just as South Orange is a suburb of New York, and the costs are comparable, she said.
“Gas prices are crazy, but other than that, everything costs about the same,” he said.
The rapper plans to return to Los Angeles this summer. “I want to be seen, I want to be out there,” he said. “California is the perfect place to do that.
“I didn't grow up on a beach or around palm trees,” Sammad said, and now that he's gotten a taste of the West Coast he's realized it's the right place for him. “This is my new home, without a doubt.”
