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<\/p>\nThey left by the thousands, giving up life in Los Angeles for new lives in places with cheaper housing and a more affordable way of life.<\/p>\n
Some were almost evangelistic about how the move to places such as Austin, Dallas and Nashville would improve their lives and benefited their pocketbooks.<\/p>\n
But it turns out it\u2019s harder than many thought to truly escape the affordability crisis that has long bedeviled the Golden State.<\/p>\n
A Times analysis of the top 10 cities where Los Angeles residents moved between 2020 and 2025 shows that the cost of living in every one of those cities has risen more than it has in L.A. during that period.<\/p>\n
Besides Nashville, Dallas and Austin, Texas, the cities surveyed are Las Vegas, Phoenix, Houston, Seattle, Denver, Portland, Ore., and Atlanta \u2014 all considered affordable alternatives to L.A.<\/p>\n
In all cases, cost of living \u2014 in addition to median rent and home price \u2014 was lower than in L.A. in 2020 and was still lower in 2025.<\/p>\n
But the affordability gap is narrowing in those five years, the data show. <\/p>\n
In five of the 10 cities, median rent has risen faster than in L.A., where rents are up around 29% over the five-year span, The Times\u2019 data analysis found.<\/p>\n
In Dallas and Atlanta, rents are up by more than 39%, per Zillow\u2019s Observed Rent Index.<\/p>\n
In six of the 10 cities, median home prices are up more than Los Angeles\u2019 45% increase. In Phoenix and Nashville, home prices are up around 70%, according to Zillow\u2019s Home Value Index.<\/p>\n
The cost of living index developed by the Council for Community & Economic Research (C2ER) indicates that all 10 cities saw a bigger increase over the five years than Los Angeles did. In six of the 10 cases, cost of living increased at least twice as much as in Los Angeles, where it rose 3%.<\/p>\n
Overall, those cities remain more affordable than L.A. \u2014 often by a significant margin \u2014 but the new residents are paying more now than when they arrived.<\/p>\n
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View from the 16th floor of the new Bank of America Tower in Dallas under construction in March.<\/p>\n
(Tom Fox \/ The Dallas Morning News via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Demographic experts say this is to be expected, and in many cases, the trade-off for leaving L.A. still makes financial sense.<\/p>\n
As places like Austin and Nashville became more desirable during the pandemic, demand for housing increased.<\/p>\n
Austin, for example, saw an influx of both middle-income Californians as well as the very rich, including Tesla founder Elon Musk. Musk\u2019s move coincided with a tech boom in the city that lured some from Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n
Some 10,000 Californians moved to Austin annually during this period, according to an analysis of census data by StorageCafe.<\/a><\/p>\n Those Californians helped fuel a boom in the city, according to Chris Gannon, an architect and the chair of the housing affordability committee at AIA Austin who also sits on the city planning commission.<\/p>\n Many who came sought more affordable home prices, which are now hard to come by as home values have skyrocketed. Austin has had significant success in building rental housing and lowering rents, Gannon said, but home ownership remains too expensive for most.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a booming scene here, partly spurred by the massive wave of Californians and New Yorkers who popped in in 2022,\u201d he said. \u201cLike Lyle Lovett says, \u2018That\u2019s right, you\u2019re not from Texas, but we want you anyways.\u201d<\/p>\n Dowell Myers, a professor of policy, planning and demography at USC, said the data show affordability issues have become national in scale.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t just blame California\u2019s changes on current problems within the state,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Indeed, almost one-third of all American households were cost-burdened \u2014 spending more than 30% of monthly income on housing costs \u2014 in 2024, a study by Harvard University\u2019s Joint Center for Housing Studies<\/a> found. <\/p>\n 2024 marked the year with the highest number of cost-burdened households ever, beyond even during the 2008 financial crisis.<\/p>\n Generally, when leaving the state, \u201cpeople were going to dramatically less expensive locations,\u201d said Evan White, co-founder of the California Policy Lab. Now, the affordability gap is shrinking, creating less financial benefit for those who choose to leave the Golden State.<\/p>\n White\u2019s research showed that those who leave California are much more likely to become homeowners<\/a> in their new states. As homes in popular destinations for those fleeing California appreciate more quickly, selling a home in California to move elsewhere becomes less profitable.<\/p>\n Travel to any of the famed destinations for those leaving the state, and conversations abound about high costs.<\/p>\n The moon shines over a housing community on the edge of Camelback Mountain in Phoenix on March 2.<\/p>\n (Andrew Lichtenstein \/ Corbis via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Nevada \u2014 where its most populous city, Las Vegas, drew the most fleeing Angelenos of any city from 2020 to 2025 \u2014 is in the midst of a \u201csevere housing affordability crisis,\u201d according to the Nevada Institute for Children\u2019s Research & Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n In Phoenix, the city which drew the second-most Angelenos, \u201cThe crisis isn\u2019t coming; it\u2019s here,\u201d wrote the Arizona Housing Coalition.<\/a> Ditto Dallas-Fort Worth, where the Texas Tribune reported<\/a> that the third-largest target for those fleeing L.A. has been unable to build enough housing to match growing demand.<\/p>\n In the early days of the pandemic, other states offered an affordability haven for Californians under financial pressure. <\/p>\n The data suggest the \u201cCalifornia exodus\u201d discount is not as strong.<\/p>\n After seeing major population drops beginning with the pandemic in 2020 and continuing for years afterward, California\u2019s population has stabilized.<\/p>\n L.A.\u2019s population is still shrinking, though, and statewide the era of never-ending population growth appears to have ended. <\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1780242862_150_.jpeg\")
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