Arizona remains a popular endpoint of the mass exodus out of California, according to a recent report from StorageCafe.
Over the past decade, an average of 173 Californians relocated to Arizona on a daily basis. That amounts to over 630,000 people. Los Angeles County to Maricopa County is the most popular relocation route, with nearly 8,700 people making the move from the Los Angeles area to the Phoenix area in 2022 alone.
Millennials are the most likely to make the trek from California to Arizona. Over a quarter of all California-to-Arizona movers from the past decade were millennials, followed by Gen Z at 20% and baby boomers at 18%. The average millennial in that cohort makes about $47,000 per year, but stands to earn up to $49,433 — the average millennial income in Arizona — after moving.
Affordability is the main catalyst of this trend. Homeownership isn’t widely attainable in California anymore, given that the average Golden State home costs nearly $660,000 (and far more near major cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco). In contrast, over a third of people who moved from California to Arizona were able to purchase a home within the first year of relocation, with the average cost in Arizona being around $321,000.
“Even though housing affordability has declined significantly nationally and in Arizona, Arizona housing remains much more affordable than it is in California,” George Hammond, a professor at the Eller College of Management at The University of Arizona, said in the report. “That’s particularly true for the major metropolitan areas in Southern California from which Arizona draws a large share of its domestic migrants.”
Buyers stand to gain the most savings when moving to the Phoenix area from San Mateo County, located south of the San Francisco area. The average San Mateo home costs $1,441,300, while the average Maricopa County home costs $371,400. That’s a difference of 288%, or over $1 million.
Renters can also find substantial savings in Arizona. Looking at San Mateo County again, the average renter spends $2,719 per month. In Maricopa County, the monthly rent is around $1,071, meaning renters can cut their monthly cost in half, and then some.
Aside from housing affordability, tax rates also play a role in the California-to-Arizona pipeline. Arizona has an individual income tax rate of 2.5%, which is about a fifth of Callifornia’s rate of 13.3%.