Temecula Real Estate News – California attracts more families than it loses

For the first time in 11 years, the four major moving companies that release data agree: More families are moving to California than are leaving it.

For a decade, high housing prices made it hard for people to stay in the state, even if they wanted to. But falling house prices and increased hiring are enticing former Californians to come home, moving company officials said.

“I think the people realize that when we move back to California, we’re never going to have interest rates or (house) prices this low,” said Linda Oakley, owner of Atlas Moving and Storage Co. in Poway, affiliated with Allied Van lines. “We want to live in California, where it’s warm and sunny and happy.”

Indeed, 2,926 more families moved into California than moved out of it, the third-highest figure of any state or Washington, D.C., according to the combined data of Atlas Van Lines Inc., United Van Lines LLC and Allied Van Lines Inc. For years, California had seen more households moving out than in. In 2007, Atlas’ data indicated that trend had reversed, but it didn’t turn around in Allied’s data until 2011.

U-Haul International Inc., which doesn’t provide the same type of data, said it helped move 5.6 percent more people into California than out of it, according to spokeswoman Ashleigh Wagner.

Wagner also had some local data from U-Haul: Between January and November 2011, it helped 1 percent more people move out of Escondido than in, it helped 1.9 percent more people move into Oceanside than out, and it helped 11.5 percent more people move into Temecula than out.

U-Haul, United and Atlas represent 40 percent of the moving market, and Allied is private so there is no market data available, according to Boston-based market analyst Pell Research.

By the raw numbers, California had the third-highest net gain of movers, behind Texas and Florida, but those are all states with large populations. When viewed as a rate, California ranks 13th, with 0.23 moves per 1,000 households. Washington, D.C., ranked first by this metric, with a net of 2.68 incoming moves per household, almost four times that of No. 2-ranked North Carolina (see this article online for the complete table).

This should come as no surprise. Home prices along with low interest rates have brought the Temecula Valley back into the affordable range escpecially for first time buyers. Combined with awesome weather, Southern California is the place to be!