‘Nearly half of residents are found to want to leave the challenges of the region behind in the Bay Area exodus, according to a poll.’:- Growing up in the Bay Area, Michelle Hailey never considered leaving.
However, as the West Oakland property manager faces rising taxes and living costs and passes homeless encampments everyday, she feels otherwise.
“I sometimes have dreams of the moving truck pulling up to get me out of here,” said Hailey, 60, a lifelong Oakland resident. “It’s absurd that we’ve let the city erode.”
According to a Bay Area News Group and Joint Venture Silicon Valley poll, 47% of Bay Area residents want to move away in the next few years, including Hailey.
A modest decrease from 2023’s 52% who stated they’d move away. The year before, 56% said they would leave. Poll results on why Bay Area residents desire to move Homelessness and politics (both 28%), quality of life (49%), and taxation (37%), were among the reasons poll respondents left.
High housing expenses are the main reason individuals leave, with 67% of those seriously considering leaving citing them. The August five-county Bay Area poll polled 1,773 adults with a 2.5% margin of error.
Tim Thomas, research director for the Urban Displacement Project at UC Berkeley, said the Bay Area’s economic success has benefited a few.
The tech industry has produced thousands of employment here in the previous decade, but housing demand exceeds supply, driving up costs. Inability to pay leads to departure.
Studies have revealed that individuals leaving the Bay are disproportionately Hispanic and Black, while those coming in are wealthier and more educated.
Poll respondents like Jacqueline Martinez feel squeezed by excessive housing costs. In 2017, Martinez moved from Guatemala to the US, where a friend in South San Francisco welcomed her.
She finally found a one-bedroom apartment for herself and her two children, ages 9 and 15. It cost $2,350 a month. “We live like sardines,” Martinez stated through a translator. “It feels impossible to buy a home or give my kids a decent space.”
She works part-time as a cook, cosmetologist, and phlebotomist to pay rent. Nevada, where she can afford a larger home for her children and work less hours, has been on her mind.
Having a busy day and not feeling like a mother is exhausting, Martinez added. The Bay Area News Group found that 53% of renters and 37% of homeowners intended to leave the Bay Area, including Martinez.
Still, some homeowners think they could do better elsewhere. A year ago, Megan Prasad, 31, and her husband moved from San Francisco to Hayward and bought a condo It seemed like a decent investment.
Now, with their first child due in November, the couple is considering moving closer to Prasad’s family in Washington state or to the East Coast, somewhere more “family friendly.”
Prasad, another poll respondent, stated, “We’re just waiting to build equity in the home so that we can leave.”
Demographer Issi Romem calls Prasad part of the Bay Area’s “transient class”—those who move to high-opportunity places to start their professions but leave in their 30s to establish a family. As the Bay Area gets more renter-heavy, it becomes harder to find the stability many older people seek, Romen said.
Jorge Castillo may be a “transient” inhabitant. Castillo came to San Jose in 2021 for a $2,900 one-bedroom near downtown due to a high-paying tech job.
After a few years, he wondered why he was spending so much to live in a city where he never made friends. “I found it so weird because all the young, thriving engineers should be here, but everyone’s at home with their dog,” he added. “I felt very isolated.”
He moved back to Miami from San Jose this summer. “Ultimately, my family and friends brought me home,” he said.
Higher-paid workers like Castillo move farther. Arizona and Washington are Californians’ top out-of-state moving destinations, according to Census data.
In the Bay Area, most people migrate inside or somewhat outside. Which Bay Area county is most frequently transferred to outside the core five? Stockton, San Joaquin County.
Of course, fewer than half of Bay Area residents say they will leave each year really do. Inertia often wins. They sign another year-long lease, enroll their kids in another year of school, and say next year will be the year because they fear regretting leaving.
Hailey is also having trouble leaving Oakland. Even though she was considering leaving, she ran for Oakland City Council this year.
Her candidacy is half-hearted; she hasn’t raised money and doesn’t expect to win. Mostly for her to say she gave her city one final shot.
“I’ve been complaining about everything, but I felt I hadn’t done anything,” she added. This was my chance to say, ‘Well, you went in here and tried before you go.’”
First Published: October 13, 2024, 6:00 a.m.
