Posted on 04/15/2005 10:24:05 AM PDT by BurbankKarl
The exodus of Los Angeles County residents to surrounding counties and nearby states accelerated significantly during the past year, driving the largest population shift in the nation, according to new U.S. Census Bureau figures released Thursday. Fueled by soaring housing prices, traffic congestion, and new jobs in outlying areas, residents left L.A. at an average net rate of 9,621 per month between July 1, 2003, and last July 1, compared with an average net of 7,373 per month over the three previous years -- a 30 percent increase on average.
The figures show 115,434 more residents left the county last year than newcomers arrived. But the overall population still increased with 98,184 new immigrants arriving from foreign countries and 94,675 more births than deaths.
Experts said the trend is a continuing shrinking of the middle class in Los Angeles and a worsening of the disparity in income between new arrivals and the wealthier, long-term residents whose incomes likely will grow.
William H. Frey, a demographer and visiting fellow at The Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., said the decades-long shift of populations to the suburbs has accelerated and expanded throughout the nation, with more families moving farther away into what's been dubbed the exurbs.
"What's happened in Southern California is a mega-trend of what's happening elsewhere, with people moving farther and farther from the central urban area. In California, it's even beyond state lines."
Frey said studies show that no longer is the migration a "white flight" phenomena, but that Hispanics, in particular, and other ethnic groups are joining in increasing numbers.
Los Angeles remained the nation's largest county with a population of 9,937,739 as of July 1, up 77,357 from the previous year.
Riverside County was reporting a net gain of 66,664 residents from other U.S. counties; San Bernardino gained 32,517 and Kern got 10,731 people from other counties -- a total gain of 109,912 residents last year.
Since April 1, 2000, 403,070 L.A. County residents left; Riverside, San Bernardino and Kern gained 367,323.
The San Fernando Valley, meanwhile, bucked the county trend, gaining a net 8,700 people from both international and domestic immigration last year, said Daniel Blake, a California State University, Northridge, economics professor and director of the San Fernando Valley Economic Research Center.
He attributed the countertrend to greater job growth in the Valley -- a 1.6 percent increase last year versus 0.65 percent countywide.
County residents moved out of Southern California entirely, too, largely in search of cheaper real estate, less congested roads and employment, to counties such as Maricopa, which includes Phoenix, and Clark County, which includes Las Vegas.
"On an aggregate, Riverside is the biggest gainer in domestic migrants, and L.A. County is the biggest loser in terms of domestic migrants," Frey said.
"People are leaving L.A. to go to Riverside, Las Vegas and Phoenix, then San Bernardino. It's affordability that's causing middle-class flights. People can't afford housing in Los Angeles, but want to stay in the Southwest and will commute long distances."
Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., said the chief factor for people leaving L.A. is "housing affordability," and the largest potential economic impact is that they then take jobs in outlying areas.
"We're getting a little bit too expensive," Kyser said of the county, noting a similar trend in Orange County, where 27,590 residents left for other counties last year. "The question is, Will they take jobs in other counties, or not?"
Increasingly, for example, professional service businesses like law, accounting or governmental affairs firms are moving farther from traditional urban cores like the city of Los Angeles, where business tax and other costs are high, to smaller cities like Ontario, he said.
L.A. also is a major port of entry for many immigrants who gain an economic toehold, then move on to other cities and states, inflating the extent of the county's outmigration, demographers said.
Florida also showed marked changes in population, recording 14 of the nation's 100 fastest-growing counties.
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What kind of "new" math is being played here?
How many of the residents leaving are also immigrants?
And how many of those immigrants are just illegal aliens?
I'll get excited about the exodus when I see the
politicians are moving out of California!
About $50,000 in DFW area.
essentials
I can do better then that...how crazy is THIS?!?!??!:
Total rooms: 4
bedrooms: 2
baths: 2
type: coop
doorman: no
approx. sqft: 1,200
financials
price: $1,200,000
Monthly maint/cc: $1,020 (This is ON TOP of MORTGAGE)
down: 20%
www.corcoran.com
and the kicker..this is how the Real Estate blurb reads as a selling point: "FEELS LIKE A SMALL 2-STORY HOUSE!"
LOL! Mahattan real estate....dont even think about a reality...
964 Sq. Ft
I watched a real estate show on MSNBC a couple of weeks ago. They said that HALF of all new mortgages in CA are "creative", meaning they are interest-only loans, 60 year loans, etc. That's what happens to housing prices when half the people buying houses are willing to do stuff like that.
2 story, 4 bedroom, 3.5 baths, 3000 sq ft, 2 car garage, prewired media room, quarter acre lot, fenced, inground sprinkler system, $210,000. Bought it last summer. Sounds like Texas is like a "whole other country".
I was born in Riverside County (1956), and lived in Orange County (1963 - 1981), but have made my home in the Free state of Virginia since 1983. It's starting to look like LA out here.
It is truly a DAMN Shame what has happened to L.A! as a native California grew up on the west side and the valley it was the COOLEST place to live in the entire U.S
Now it's a sesspool on 3rd world immigrants TRAFFIC FROM HELL! and the Keep coming!
My friend who lives in Porter Ranch of Northridge says the entire area is being bought up by Koreans, Korean Grocery Stores Cleaners, etc...
My mom lives in L.A and she won't leave because she says well don't complain you have a big inheritance to look forward to, (HOUSE) guess I can't complain about that :)
Sounds like the New York exodus. Only people are fleeing NY because of confiscatory taxes.
And yeah, native English speakers are rare indeed.
Actually, the 800 lb Gorilla is not the illegal immigration. Illegal immigration laxity is only the symptom. The Gorilla is the collection of "snot-nosed, booger-eatin', butt-lickin', bed-wettin', crybaby" liberals who form the major constituency in LA County. All you have to do is to look at the Red Blue County map to see that! When their internal resources ran dry, they tried to get the FED to pay up, but with 8 years of GW there's not much chance of that, so they're leaving. What result is that their ilk will pollute the political stream both up and down river. Let's just hope it's diluted enough to not matter much. Liberals only have power when they congregate en masse.
In 1997 we bought a 5 BR, 2-1/2 BA 3000 sqft house on 7.5 acres of agriculturally zoned (unlimited use) land for $160,000. Last year, our neighbor's house 1/2 the size of ours on 3 acres went for $280,000. I'll stay here thank you.
There was a story in our local paper about people fleeing Westchester because the of the ridiculous housing prices. You can't buy S$%^ for less than 600k.
I recently bought a small co-op apartment for 48K recently. About a year ago. I put about 10K into it, the same unit across the yard just closed at 139K. Its insane!!!!!!!!!
Young people can't afford to live anywhere anymore where they are most likely to find jobs.
I am as conservative as anyone, but peole on this Board and people like Rush are really out of touch sometimes about what young people are facing when trying to find housing and raise a family. Rush's comment's to people on this issue really make him sound silly.
:(
One of my favorite movies!
Hey, I'm sure George W. is just ensuring that California is eventually ceded to Mexico so that future generations of the Bush Dynasty need not worry about it's electoral votes going to a Democrat.
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