How Many People Move Out of California Every Year? The 2026 Numbers

If you’ve been quietly running the math on staying versus going, you’re in a very large group of California homeowners doing exactly the same thing this year. Housing costs moved one direction, paychecks moved another, and a lot of families are now looking at a house they genuinely love next to a budget that no longer stretches around it. That gap isn’t a personal failure. It’s arithmetic, and you’re allowed to look at it honestly.

We’re Seller’s Advantage, a family-owned, licensed Southern California brokerage that buys homes directly. We’ve spent years buying houses across Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego counties, and a good share of those sellers were on their way out of state.

How Many Leave, and How Many Enter

About 650,000 people pack up and leave California for another state in a typical year. But in that same year, about 450,000 to 500,000 people move to California from other states.

Now subtract one from the other. The result has a name: net domestic migration. It counts how many more people left the state than arrived, looking only at moves within the United States. For the year ending in mid-2025, the Census Bureau put California’s net loss at close to 230,000 people.

Why People Leave

Housing is the most common reason people tend to leave California.

Since 2015, California has lost a net 900,000 people who named housing as their main reason for moving. In survey work, 34% of Californians said they’d seriously thought about leaving over housing costs. Another 21% pointed to a shortage of well-paying jobs.

The losses fall hardest on households with the least room in the budget. Over ten years, the state’s net loss among lower-income adults was 532,000, more than 10% of that group. Among higher-income adults it was 165,000, under 2%. If your household is feeling squeezed, you’re in the majority, and many owners ultimately explore how to sell California real estate after moving away.

Where does everyone go? In 2024, the biggest net losses ran to Texas, Washington, Arizona, Florida, and Oregon, with Nevada and Idaho taking outsized shares for their size. Most people don’t move far.

What’s Happening in Southern California

California’s population dipped 0.14% to 39,593,000 as of January 1, 2026, the first drop after three years of growth. Finance pins that mainly on legal international migration falling from 248,400 people in 2024 to 126,400 in 2025. The outflow to other states didn’t spike. The inflow from abroad that used to cover it got cut in half.

Locally, the split is sharp. Los Angeles County lost about 64,000 residents, which Finance ties to the January 2025 Eaton and Palisades fires, movement toward the Inland Empire, and other factors. Orange County slipped 0.4% and Ventura 0.6%. Riverside grew 0.4%, San Bernardino 0.1%, and San Diego 0.1%.

The inland pull makes sense. Coastal Southern California carries the state’s highest prices and, in fire-exposed neighborhoods, the hardest insurance to place. The Department of Insurance counted 555,868 FAIR Plan policies in March 2025, up about 104,000 in six months. When coverage gets expensive or hard to find, some families move inland instead of absorbing it, while others look at where companies like Seller’s Advantage buy homes so they can exit entirely.

Your Three Options If You’re Selling

Most people who leave California sell a house first, often to a company that buys California homes for cash. Which path fits usually comes down to the home’s condition and how much time you have.

Keep it and rent it out. You hold the asset and any appreciation. You also take on California’s tenant protection laws, which are strict on notice, rent increases, and just-cause eviction, plus repairs and vacancies from far away. Talk to a landlord-tenant attorney first or compare it with selling quickly for cash in California.

List it with a local agent. When a home shows well and you can wait, a traditional listing usually brings the highest gross price. Plan on roughly 90 to 120 days on market plus 30 to 60 days in escrow, along with commissions, inspection requests, and repairs. If your timeline is flexible and the house is in good shape, this is often the better choice, and we’ll tell you so, even if that means not using a company that buys houses as-is for cash.

Sell as-is to a direct buyer. This fits when your move date is set, the home needs work you’d rather not fund, or you’ve already left. You trade some gross price for speed with a service that lets you sell your house fast for cash as-is. What matters is your net proceeds after repairs, commissions, and months of carrying costs, and that gap is usually smaller than people expect.

How Selling to Seller’s Advantage Works

The short version: you tell us where you’re headed, a local team member takes a look at the home, and you may receive a no-obligation cash offer within 24 hours, no commission and no repairs required. If it’s a fit, you pick the closing date, as early as 7 to 14 days, or we can extend the timeline to fit your move. If you’re in Los Angeles, this is the same process we use as a fast cash home buyer in Los Angeles and a leading Los Angeles cash house buying company. For the full walkthrough, including how escrow works and what happens to your mortgage at closing, see our guide on how cash home buyers work in California.

FAQ’S

How many people move out of California every year? About 650,000 leave for other states, while 450,000 to 500,000 arrive. The net loss for 2025 ran between 216,000 and 288,600, depending on the agency and the months counted.

Is California actually losing population? Slightly, as of January 2026, for the first time in three years. Finance attributes the dip mainly to reduced international migration, not a surge in people leaving, even though you may see more of our Seller’s Advantage TV commercials about buying homes quickly.

Do I need to fix up the house before I move? For a traditional listing, repairs and staging usually pay for themselves. For an as-is sale, leave the repairs and the unwanted furniture behind when you work with a company that purchases homes for cash and a local team focused on simplifying your sale.

Talk It Through Before You Decide

Deciding whether to leave the state you built a life in is a big call, and the house is usually the biggest piece of it. We’ll walk through your numbers and tell you honestly which path fits, even when that’s listing with an agent or staying put.

Talk with our local team about your situation →