The recent migration route from California to Texas is well worn with companies and people abandoning the West Coast for cheaper living.
More than 23,800 California residents relocated to Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Denton counties in 2019, according to a data analysis by StorageCafe. That ranks all four North Texas counties among the top 10 destinations in the state for Californians.
So what are the transplants gaining? A typical home in Dallas-Fort Worth is 52% less expensive than in Los Angeles County, resulting in a $438,000 list price gap, according to StorageCafe.
Homebuyers are also getting larger living spaces, with the average D-FW home offering more than 650 square feet in extra living space compared to Los Angeles County.
“I think there’s no question that the main driver is housing prices in California,” said William Fulton, director at the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University. “When housing prices in California go up, so does migration to Texas. When housing prices in California go down, migration to Texas goes down as well.”
The analysis by StorageCafe, an online platform that provides storage unit listings across the U.S., tracked the 25 most popular California-to-Texas treks from 2019. The top route was Los Angeles County to Harris County, anchored by Houston, followed by L.A. to Dallas County and L.A. to Travis County, anchored by Austin.
Moves from L.A. to Collin County, L.A. to Tarrant County and L.A. to Denton County came in fourth, fifth and seventh place, respectively.
North Texas counties were particularly popular for residents of Orange County, Calif., the study said. Homes in Collin County, which includes Plano, Frisco, McKinney and other high growth communities, are 44% cheaper and 54% bigger than homes in Orange County.
Tarrant County, home to Fort Worth and Arlington, offered the best option for Orange County transplants searching for lower home prices, with the average home being 61% less expensive there.
But Californians moving to Texas also could take a pay cut — the average annual pay in D-FW was $67,000 in 2020 compared to $73,000 in L.A. However, Texas personal taxes are significantly lower, as the state has no income tax compared to California’s top individual income tax rate of 13.3%.
“Many organizations are considering moving either their headquarters or divisions to Texas to take advantage of lower taxes, a higher quality of living and lower housing prices for their workforce,” said Austin Community College adjunct professor of real estate and finance Job Hammond.
Texas is outcompeting every state in claiming formerly California-based headquarters, according to a study by McKinney-based Spectrum Location Solutions and Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. Nearly 115 companies relocated from California to Texas from Jan. 1, 2018, to June 30 of this year. Forty-one of those companies chose North Texas as their new home.
