The pandemic may not have spawned an all-out urban exodus, but it has driven some residents of America's most populous state to seek shelter elsewhere.
California, with its increasingly unaffordable locales and worsening housing shortage, had a net population loss of about 173,000 people between July 1, 2020, and July 1, 2021.
Move-outs weren't totally to blame — fewer move-ins from other states, a drop in foreign immigration and births plus pandemic-related deaths played a larger role than people fleeing the state because it got too expensive, experts say.
Still, thousands of people did move out of California's pricey coastal cities in search of cheaper living.
Should residents of those destinations blame Californians for the home price increases they're experiencing? In most cases, no.
Net move-ins accelerated across Sun Belt cities like Houston, Dallas, Phoenix and Austin, Texas, during the pandemic, but housing construction is keeping up, and other factors account for the bulk of home price increases in those markets.
A CBRE analysis of U.S. Postal Service data paints a clear picture of migration patterns across the country, comparing 2019 to 2020 figures.
Notably, people who moved from California's urban centers during the pandemic didn't go far. More San Francisco residents headed for nearby Sacramento in 2020 than in 2019, while more Los Angeles residents headed for lower-cost cities inland, such as Riverside.