Young people are fleeing Los Angeles for some surprising places. Fresno in, Texas out?

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Erika Lee, 30, grew up in Diamond Bar, attended USC and started her career in Southern California.

But then she pivoted to crypto and, in February, moved from an apartment in West Hollywood to San Francisco for a job at an artificial intelligence insurance startup.

“I didn’t expect to like it so much,” Lee said of San Francisco. “I just thought it would be a good opportunity in an industry that is really thriving.”

Lee represents one aspect of a generational gap in California’s latest demographic shift.

Discussions about such changes often focus on the “California exodus,” or people leaving the Golden State in search of more affordable living, lower taxes and a change of pace.

But new data show that the latest demographic shifts — within and out of California — have relocated people to very various destinations based on their age, and presumably their income level.

Boomers, for example, are decamping to places like Arizona, Nevada and Texas, the data show.

When it comes to much younger Californians, moving is actually hard to do. And when they do, it’s to places like Oregon, Utah and Colorado.

High-speed rail construction near downtown Fresno. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) And then there are young Angelenos like Lee, who are staying in the state but moving to the Bay Area amid the AI boom. San Francisco is one destination. But another one, surprisingly, is Fresno, which offers a strong job market and significantly cheaper housing prices than in coastal areas.

Since 2021, Fresno has seen “a lot of relocation from the Bay Area and Los Angeles,” said Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer.

The change began with families relocating to Fresno but working remotely, he said. But now, younger people are also moving in, pushing the age of the average Fresno resident to 31, well below the statewide figure.

“Cost of living is very affordable still,” he said, and the average home price is $400,000. “We don’t have traffic congestion, we are centrally located and near natural parks.”

New residents under 40 have been moving downtown, he said, something that hasn’t happened in decades.

Dyer has already heard concerns about Bay Area newcomers bringing their political beliefs to a place he called a “very moderate city in terms of our politics.”

The relocation boom has boosted demand for housing, with supply falling behind, the mayor said. The result has been higher rents and home prices, which Dyer worries have made Fresno less affordable for home-grown residents.

Internet message boards are filled with comments about the experiences of ex-Angelenos living in Fresno. The consensus is that while it has less nightlife and fewer cultural institutions than L.A., there is fun to be had for those who look. And it’s hard to beat the prices, especially compared to Southern California.

“I ended up getting married and [having] kids and we bought a house here. No way in hell you buying a house in [Southern California] with a front and back yard for under $1 million unless you move away from the city,” one person posted on Reddit. “It’s a nice central location with the Bay Area or Sacramento a couple hours away and Southern California several hours away. We are in Long Beach or Sacramento often visiting family and do not miss the traffic in L.A.”

Data from U-Haul suggest a generational gap in the migration: Older residents are leaving the state, while some young residents are moving around within it, hoping to build lives in California.

Among those leaving the Golden State, their final destinations were heavily dependent on their age, according to a year of U-Haul data from June 2025 to June 2026. The metro areas that gained the most people in the 12-month period were Las Vegas, Palm Springs and the Arizona cities of Lake Havasu, Phoenix and Prescott.

For baby boomers leaving the L.A. area, the top five destination states were Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Oregon and Utah, excluding California, the U-Haul data showed. Boomers are defined as those born between 1946 and 1965.

Among Gen Xers departing LA, the top states were similar: Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Texas and Washington. Gen. Xers were born between 1965 and 1980.

Those leaving L.A. put down roots in Bakersfield, Las Vegas, Lake Havasu, San Francisco and Phoenix.

Millennials who left L.A. were much more likely to stay within the state. But among those who did leave California, they picked surprisingly different destinations: Texas, Oregon, Tennessee, Colorado and Utah were the top destinations. Millennials were born between 1981 and 1996.

The top metro areas for millennials were largely within the state: San Francisco, Bakersfield, Sacramento and Riverside.

Gen Z Californians who left the state preferred similar destinations to their millennial counterparts: Texas, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Arizona. Gen Z is defined as those born from 1997 to 2012.

The top metro areas for Gen Z were San Francisco, Fresno, Bakersfield, Houston and Dallas.

Lee is among those younger Angelenos who chose San Francisco over all other cities.

She said she’s aware that Bay Area residents outside of the AI boom are wary of the industry’s influence on the cost of living. She lives in a studio apartment and doesn’t know whether she’ll be able to afford a home in San Francisco.

Lee prefers the food scene and diversity of L.A. over that of San Francisco, and recognizes that Southern California is relatively cheaper — although both places are undergoing historic affordability crises.

But the 9-9-6 culture is a temporary reality, not a life goal, she said, and she expects her time in San Francisco to last a few years. “I don’t know if one day I’ll move back so I can be closer to my family.”

Nationally, boomers and Gen Xers who moved domestically with U-Haul did not have California in the top 10 states by arrival number — a remarkable development, considering the Golden State’s population is the nation’s largest.

For millennials, California was the third-biggest destination, trailing Florida and Texas. San Francisco was the fourth biggest draw, behind Dallas, Houston and Orlando.

And for Gen Z, California was the second-biggest destination, behind only Texas. San Francisco and Los Angeles were fourth and fifth on the list of cities where Gen Z movers relocated, behind New York, Dallas and Chicago.

By raw numbers, net domestic out-migration of Californians to other states continues even as the California exodus overall has diminished in strength.

About 215,000 more people left the state than arrived between July 1, 2024 and 2025, per data from the state Department of Finance.

Although that gap peaked at 370,000 in 2021, the 2025 figure was up significantly from 2024’s net out-migration.

In Los Angeles, the story was similar: Nearly 100,000 more people left L.A. County for other states than arrived in 2025, a figure that approached the county’s 2021 and 2022 levels.

In San Francisco County, net domestic migration was close to zero, as it had been since 2023. The same was true for Kern and Fresno counties, home to cities which drew young Angelenos, per the U-Haul data.

California’s population grew slightly in the last three years, but had yet to reach its pre-pandemic high after seeing residents flee in droves from 2020 to 2022.

Terry Castleman is a data reporter on the Fast Break Desk covering breaking news. In 2020, he was named alongside his colleagues as a Pulitzer Prize finalist in explanatory reporting. Previously, he worked at the New York Times and volunteered as a first responder for refugees arriving on the shores of Lesvos.

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