An interesting article in today’s Los Angeles Times: Gale Holland & Sam Quinones, Waving California Goodbye, November 27, 2011, at p. A39. Click here. It elaborates on the out-migration out of California, that has been going on since 2005 when California experienced a net loss of 269,205 people. The numbers have declined (129,193 in 2010) but the trend is unmistakable. See our earlier comment on this problem at www.gideonstrumpet.info/?p=1641. Also noteworthy is the fact that this time the Times article duly takes notice of the fact that though this out-migration is rooted in “a flagging economy,” “. . .exorbitant housing prices — too high for many struggling Californians despite a burst housing bubble — still play a role.” The bursting housing bubble may have brought housing prices down, but not enough. Our last point is made in spades in another L.A. Times item: a prominent TV actor just put his house on the market for $10.7 million — it sold in 2001 for a mere $5.5 million. Bubble, shmubble. That’s a lot of gain, even if it is as yet unrealized.
The big problem is that young people on whom this state is dependent for its future, simply can’t afford to live here, so they go elsewhere.