July 9, 2012

By Blaine Rollins, CFA, 361 Capital

Nearly four million more people have left the Golden State in the last two decades than have come from other states. This a sharp reversal from the 1980s, when 100,000 more Americans were settling in California each year than were leaving. According to Mr. Kotkin, most of those leaving are between the ages of 5 and 14 or 34 to 45. In other words, young families..."Basically, if you don't own a piece of Facebook or Google and you haven't robbed a bank and don't have rich parents, then your chances of being able to buy a house or raise a family in the Bay Area or in most of coastal California is pretty weak," says Mr. Joel Kotkin. While many middle-class families have moved inland, those regions don't have the same allure or amenities as the coast. People might as well move to Nevada or Texas, where housing and everything else is cheaper and there's no income tax.

Source: This was excerpted from the Wall Street Journal via 361 Capital's 361 Capital Weekly Research Briefing, April 23, 2012 publication.

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