California exodus as 500,000 people flee Golden State in two years since the ... trends now
California has seen a population decline of more than 1 percent since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with an estimated 500,000 people leaving the state between April 2020 and July 2022
California has seen a population decline of more than 1 percent since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with an estimated 500,000 people leaving the state between April 2020 and July 2022.
In the state where where once-a-year massive wildfires and treacherous mudslides threaten homes, the population dipped by slightly more than 508,000 since 2020.
San Francisco and Lassen counties experienced the largest population declines, at 7.1 percent and 7.5 percent respectively.
Deputy director of external affairs at the California Department of Finance, H.D. Palmer, told the Sacramento Bee that the shrinking population of the Golden State is a reflection of its ongoing housing affordability crisis.
'If you talk to demographers, they'll say that one of the factors is the cost of housing. And that's continued to be a challenging issue for the state,' he said.
California has seen a population decline of more than 1 percent since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with an estimated 500,000 people leaving the state between April 2020 and July 2022. San Francisco has become a virtual ghost town, seen here pictured in October 2022
Homeless tents are seen along Embarcadero Street during heavy rain in San Francisco earlier this year
According to the Bee, in Sacramento - where the median household income in 2021 was $71,047 - it requires a household salary of around $145,000 to afford the median-priced house in the region.
A mass exodus has been occurring in the city known for its Silicon Valley since the pandemic struck in 2020, and many office spaces were abandoned.
That means the city's streets have become increasingly dangerous, with many locals avoiding downtown's sidewalks for fear of a violent encounter with one of the many vagrants and drug abusers who've taken over.
'San Francisco went from being one of the hottest office markets in the country to one of the weakest,' Carlisle told the San Francisco Gate, adding: 'High tech workers were the ones who were most likely to say, 'Well if I can work from any place, I'll move some place where housing costs 90 percent less.''
Since 2020, the city has descended into a crime haven, where slash-and-grab thieves would break into stores and steal items in broad daylight and homeless people are seen doing drugs right on the streets — sometimes where students would walk home from school.
