As concerns about a California exodus spread during the COVID-19 pandemic, media across the country speculated about the end of the reign of coastal metros like San Francisco and Los Angeles. It turned out that while many residents did leave those cities, they tended to simply move to other parts of the state to settle down. A new report out this week shows that trend continuing with California renters opting to pingpong all over the state instead of moving to another state altogether.

For San Francisco renters searching for a new place to live, 40% were looking at a different metro area, according to a new report from rental site Apartment List. San Jose was the most popular place, with 23.3% of searches focused on its Bay Area neighbor. Sacramento was the second most sought-after market at 10.3% of searches, and Los Angeles had 6.3%.

For those looking to move to San Francisco, the trend was similar, with most searches coming from San Jose (20.5%). Los Angeles (11.2%) and Sacramento (7%) were next in line, respectively.

Of the San Jose residents looking for a change of pace, 33.1% of searches were for San Francisco. Los Angeles had 6.9% and Sacramento had 5.6%.

In Los Angeles, the top queried moving spot was Riverside, with 18.3% of searches. San Diego had 9.5%. Phoenix was third on the list, with 5.7% of searches looking at apartments in the Arizona city. It also appeared in Riverside’s top 3 list of searches, the only city outside of California to show up in these top spots.

For those who were looking for a bigger move, the states Californians were considering for relocation weren’t surprising. Texas is still the top place for renters, with Nevada and Arizona close behind. Washington state, another popular place for Californians to flee to, took the fourth spot. Meanwhile, Colorado has been gaining ground, landing in the fifth spot this year.

What may come as a surprise is that California renters seem to be losing their desire to move to Florida. More than 5% of renters looked to move there in 2023, but that number fell to 4.2% in 2024 and to just 3.8% in 2025. At the same time, interest in Texas has steadily risen, from 11% in 2023 to 12.4% in 2024 and 12.8% in 2025.

Apartment List analyzed search data on its site and net domestic migration from the U.S. Census Bureau to calculate its report.

Rob Warnock, a senior research associate for Apartment List, told SFGATE he doesn’t expect any big fluctuations in these trends in the coming year, especially as artificial intelligence jobs remain a big draw for the Bay Area and the overall economy is strong. Using San Francisco as an example, he said there’s almost always a proximity leader (San Jose) and an affordability leader (Sacramento) in the top searches from any given place.

“It paints that nice picture of the cycle of who’s moving to and from these major job centers,” he said.

More on California

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– America’s obsession with California failing
– What it’s like to live in a Calif. tourist attraction being swallowed by the sea
– There’s a quiet housing fix spreading across California
– California remote workers are bringing their high salaries elsewhere
– The unlikely (and unofficial) boundary between Northern and Southern California

This article originally published at California renters show decreasing interest in moving to once-popular destination.