Ah the memories...my commute from the Valley was to just north of where that pic was snapped. No mas!!
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.
Half a million dollars.
For 964 square feet.
Built in 1939.
On a fifth of an acre.
In the last 2 months, I personally know of 3 people that sold out and moved. One to Texas, one to Arizona, one to North Carolina. Sell your house NOW and cash in fast before the collapse. I will buy it at 10% of it's value from the dummies you sell it to.
I am also listening. Tell those guys that there are apartment dwellers that are cash-rich and investment-rich for this particular reason. But I may just go to Richardson, TX for an engineering job myself. Nicer people. Respectable ladies. Just better living overall. And Texans kick all their illegal aliens to California. Tell those guys that!
That is a Sell indicator. I sold my REIT holdings last week. Live in a motel if you must. Keep the currency liquid.
What I liked best about it though was that both Douglas and Douvall were playing against type - in effect, they were playing each other's characters.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Whew! I'm just glad that place is on the other side of the country from me. As the Kalifornians move to surrounding states they'll probably take their liberal Democrat voting habits with them, the same voting habits they used to destroy Kalifornia. Now they can do the same to the states they're fleeing to. They are like a communicable cancer.
I'm not sure about that, but I do know that there are a heck of a lot of illegal garage conversions going on in Los Angeles, and the building department doesn't do a heck of a lot to enforce that sort of thing.
Two families or more living on one property.
My experience, is sometimes one family per bedroom with an additional family in the garage. Makes for quite a crowded domicile.
I prefer the people from the Central Valley myself. Unfortunatly, they have to live in such sh-tholes as Bakersfield and Modesto.
I have the spare $$$ to do this because I paid off my 3900 sq ft house on a 1/3 acre. I just have to pay property taxes each year. That's the benefit of ditching San Diego in favor of Pocatello, Idaho. I don't have to put up with endless anti-gun laws either. Just renewed my CCW for another 5 years.
Same thing here in NY. People are renting ot basements, attics, garages, etc etc.
In California, it is not legal to do so, but the building inspectors claim to be over worked and cannot make the time to check into all of these things.
As a hard working young person, it is very disconcerting to see what is happening. We have to compete with families of immigrants whom our parents never had to and are told just to drink our medicine. It sucks. A nice house where I live is around 650K and up.
It also means that half the homebuyers probably don't belong there. A lot of that creative financing is ARM's which by year's end will break many substandard borrowers. There may be a REAL exodus then.
In 1976, I worked at a job for a vitamin company filling orders. I was the only English speaking person there. I had no one except the supervisor to communicate with. It was hell. I put up with it, cause I needed the job. Going to college and living on my own, it was a necessity to work 2 jobs and carry 12 min units at the University I attended.
It is not your medicine. I think there is going to be an uprising in this nation that the Federal govt has no clue about it. I see the young people really fed up with the mess out nations so called leaders have put us into.
Ah the memories...my commute from the Valley was to just north of where that pic was snapped. No mas!!
Hey I noticed you are in the Coachella Valley, Being that I am in N San Diego County, I lived in Palm Springs for 10 years, and moved to Dallas in 1996 one of those moving for love one of things.LOL..Anyways thinking about going back mto Palm Desert
I can take the heat better than Congested traffic!
Go to today's Desert Sun and the front page feature article is about the rapidly growing traffic congestion. Even in the past three years that we've been full-timers here, we really see the difference and can't wait for summer when the snowbirds bail out.
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