PODS, a moving and storage company, released its moving trend report for 2025, showing seven California cities remained on the list of highest moveouts.
The company used net long-distance moving numbers between January 2024 and March 2025. They also compared the numbers to previous years to see which areas would continue to draw more people.
While California had no cities on the top 20 list of popular move-ins, it did have several cities on the list of places people were moving out of.
The Carolinas were the most popular states people moved to, with six cities combined, including the most popular destination of Myrtle Beach and Wilmington. Tennessee followed closely behind with five cities, according to the report.
Which California cities are people moving out of?
Data from The Journal of Consumer Research showed that the state had the highest net negative migration of -7,330. A total of 15,568 left while only 8,238 moved into the state.
The journal cited its high cost of living among the factors driving Californians out.
“Housing and housing costs … are becoming an increasingly bigger part (of people’s decision to move) over the years because there’s increasingly (significant) differences across states in cost of living,” William H. Frey, a Brookings demographer.
Los Angeles and the San Francisco area claimed the top spots for areas people are moving out of. The two areas also held the same positions from the previous year.
Ventura County’s neighbor, Santa Barbara, placed 11th on the list for the second year in a row.
The four other cities that made the top 20 were:
The list of 20 cities that people are moving out of and where they were placed the year prior:
Cities with highest move-ins and where they placed the year prior:
Ernesto Centeno Araujo covers breaking news for the Ventura County Star. He can be reached at ecentenoaraujo@vcstar.com.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: PODS report shows people continue to flock out of California, where are they going?
Reporting by Ernesto Centeno Araujo, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
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