PALM SPRINGS — Despite the infamous California exodus that is ongoing, Palm Springs is one of only four cities in California seeing a positive move ratio in 2022, according to moveBuddha’s 2022 California Migration Report

Already in 2022, California has the second-highest interest in moving out (behind New Jersey) with only 37 people searching to move in for every 100 searches to move out.

Positives of the exodus:

  • There are a few stand-out cities that we expect to see a positive inflow this year despite rising housing costs: Palm Springs, Santa Monica, Palo Alto, and Mountain View.
  • More exodus means more housing available for those who are looking to move in (and maybe lower costs in the long run?). The more options there are, the more of a no-brainer it will be for anyone considering a move into the Golden State.

The 2022 data comes directly from moveBuddha which was collected from Jan 1 to May 4, 2022 for those looking to move throughout the year.

The company compiles all of the search queries entered into the moveBuddha move calculator to see where people are looking to move in 2022 and calculate the in/out move ratios for these searches to predict what cities and states should expect growth and decline in the upcoming year.
The city-based analysis includes more than 30,000 queries in California alone.

Additionally, we look at the U.S. Census population data for support to the moving trends. The latest official Census data through July 1, 2021 shows Palm Springs’ estimated population is 45,019 – which is a gain of 440 vs July 1, 2020. So, Palm Springs has seen a population increase for the past couple of years.  Source.

Keep in mind that the Census has not released official data for 2022 yet.

However, the moveBuddha moving cost calculator represents 5% of all moving searches when comparing numbers to historical Census data. So, by that ratio, the estimated growth for Palm Springs so far in 2022 (through May 5) is 340 people, bringing the projected Palm Springs population to 45,359 currently. This is an estimated growth range of 0.8-1% vs July 2021.

A spokesperson for the company said that based on the move data alone, she could not give a “sure answer” as to why this phenomenon is occurring other than speculation.

“My first thought, Mercedes Martinez said, was perhaps the housing costs have not seen as much of an increase in that area as in others (almost all of the fast-declining large Californian cities from this past decade have seen home values nearly double since 2010), but upon research, Palm Springs actually has one of the highest housing cost increases in the past couple of years: 59.51% increase from 2020-2022.

“My next guess,” Martinez said, “based on the high number of people moving to and staying in Florida and what I know about Palm Springs, is that these areas have a high population of folks that go there to retire and stay. I’m willing to bet this is why there’s a much lower number of people looking to move out of Palm Springs compared to other CA cities.”

Here are the top 5 cities searching to move into Palm Springs are:

  1. Kirkland, Washington
  2. Seattle, Washington
  3. Miami, Florida
  4. Washington D.C.
  5. New York, New York

And the top 5 cities those who are leaving Palm Springs are searching to move to:

  1. Salem, Oregon
  2. Las Vegas, Nevada
  3. Indianapolis, Indiana
  4. Dallas, Texas
  5. Yucca Valley, California

Image Sources

  • Palm Springs: Shutterstock