California Was Once a Land of Boundless Opportunity. That’s No Longer True.

September 15, 2023

The state’s population stagnation is likely to continue for decades as younger people flee for opportunities elsewhere.

by Steven Greenhut Reason.com

After spending late summer in a picturesque town in the Pacific Northwest, I’m eager to get home to California and enjoy the sunshine and warm weather. But it’s not just the climate that I miss. There’s something fabulous about our varied scenery. The drive past Mount Shasta and into the Central Valley always stirs my heart. And I love the spirit of California, with its diversity of people, cuisine and cultures—as well as its fascinating Gold Rush history.

The state always beckoned me, so much so that when I was offered a job in Orange County in the 1990s I accepted it immediately and then had to break the news to my shell-shocked wife. Even then, the home prices were daunting compared to the rest of the country—an imbalance that only has gotten more pronounced in the ensuing 25 years as slow-growth regulations took hold and led to a consistent underbuilding of new housing units.