Couple who used to love living in California reveal frustrating reason they've been forced to flee south to Texas - and why they're not alone

A couple who once loved living in Southern California says they had to move south to be able to buy a home.

Jillian Lovato and her wife, Jamie, had a good life in Orange County, but felt they needed to leave the state in order to achieve their dream of becoming homeowners. 

'My wife Jamie and I knew we wouldn’t be able to buy the home we wanted in California,' Jillian told Realtor.com.

'We felt like we would have been stuck renting our whole lives.'

The couple traveled around Texas while making their decision and settled on Austin as their new city in 2021.

In Austin, the Lovatos have been able to purchase a home large enough for their dogs, with access to woods and local creeks.

They are just one couple among many who has decided to leave California amid the state's high home prices.

A UC Irvine poll released Friday and cited by The Los Angeles Times indicated that over a third of Orange County residents are looking into moving somewhere else over the cost of life. 

The average monthly price of a one-bedroom rental in Irvine for August is more than $2,500 - up one percent when compared with last year. 

In Anaheim, media rent for a one-bedroom is just under $2,000 up 1.8 percent from 2023. All in all, apartments have a median rental in Orange County of $3,540, according to Realtor.com. Meanwhile, Austin has median rental price of $2,300.

Texas is the most popular destination for those seeking to leave state, with an estimated 102,000 residents of California moving to the Lone Star State in 2022, lured in by the low cost of living and absence of a state income tax.

As many as 8.1 percent of home shoppers in Texas listings originate in California.

Realtor.com senior economist Jiayi Xu noted that that the median listing price in California in July 2024  - $777,900 -  was nearly double the price in Texas $380,000.

The significant movement of Californians to Texas has sparked the term, 'Texafornia.'

According to Realtor.com, other popular destinations include Arizona, Nevada, Florida, Oregon, Washington and Tennessee.

The flow of Californians to Texas has marked the largest state-to-state movement in the U.S. for the past two years, but it decreased from more than 107,000 people in 2021 to more than 102,000 residents in 2022, as real estate in Texas’ largest cities has grown more expensive. 

In Florida, meanwhile, the number of former Californians went from more than 37,000 people in 2021 to more than 50,000 people in 2022, and in Arizona, it went from more than 69,000 people to 74,000 people during that same time period.

California had a net loss of more than 113,000 residents last year, a number that would have been much higher if not for people moving to the state from other countries and a natural increase from more births than deaths. 

More than 343,000 people left California for another state last year, the highest number of any U.S. state.