California Now Has Massive Departures To Texas

May 20, 2024

California now has massive departures to Texas as more and more residents are being reported to leave the golden state.

Every year, former Republican congressional candidate Paul Chabot hosts a welcoming ceremony at a barn in North Texas that draws hundreds of people.

Chabot’s company is dedicated to “helping patriots escape liberal states” — this is all part of the plan to relocate Orange County residents to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, a sprawling region in North Texas that’s home to more than 8 million people.

Real estate agents in the area told SFGATE that two cities in particular, though, have attracted a number of self-described “political refugees” who fled liberal California during the height of the pandemic.

Since their arrival, home prices in the area have nearly doubled, and agents said that despite local pushback, so many Californians are moving to the region that they’re creating a new subculture entirely.

Frisco and Plano, two wealthy enclaves in Collin County, have become hot spots for coastal Californians.

In 2019, the median sale price of a single-family home in Frisco was just $400,000, but it’s since risen to about $700,000 as of March 2024, Redfin data shows — a 75% increase.

Most people who recently searched for Frisco-area homes on the platform hail from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and New York.

Though Collin County is a former farming community, “New Texas” is continuing to attract residents because it’s a major corporate hub, Lloyd Potter, a state demographer and professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, told SFGATE.

This trend can be seen in other parts of the state, too: In 2020, Oracle relocated its headquarters from Redwood City to Austin, and a year later, billionaire Elon Musk made headlines when he moved Tesla’s headquarters there, backwards cowboy hat and all.

Brittany Stewart, a real estate agent who’s served the North Dallas region for 10 years, never anticipated that the pandemic would open the floodgates for Southern Californians.

“I was in shock,” she told SFGATE over the phone.

Most of Frisco’s new residents came from Los Angeles and Orange counties, she said, but there’s been general interest from the entire West Coast, reports SFGate.

More than 100,000 people from the Golden State moved to Texas in 2022, a report from the U.S. Census Bureau estimated, and while Orange County and Los Angeles County populations declined, Frisco’s population increased 9.5% from 2020 to 2022.

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Also Read: Florida Now Has Massive Departures As Hundreds of Thousands Leave

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Another beloved retailer in California now makes a surprising closure marking an end of an era for the brick and mortar business.

Vroman’s, a beloved indie bookstore in Pasadena, officially closed one of its two locations on Mother’s Day.

The Hastings Ranch location was forced to close after the company was unable to reach a new lease agreement with the property owner that was “sustainable due to increasing occupancy expenses,” the company wrote on Instagram.

“While this development is unexpected and disappointing, we are most disheartened by the impact on our co-workers,” the company wrote.

“Their dedication and hard work made that store successful, and we are forever grateful.”

Vroman’s said 12 workers were impacted by the closure.

“It’s going to lack a lot,” said Tom Reed of Monrovia.

“People are going to have to drive some distances to find the next store where they can get what they once got here. From books to games to puzzles … from A-to-Z really.”

Vroman’s flagship store on Colorado Boulevard will remain open.

Owner Joel Sheldon announced his retirement in January and shared his plans about seeking new ownership.

“I’d sooner come to a place like this than Barnes & Noble,” said Vroman’s customer Henry Olivas.

“Nothing wrong with them, it’s a nice bookstore, but I’d rather give my money to somebody who’s local and who’s a family business.”

Vroman’s is also selling its Book Soup store in West Hollywood.

In the Instagram post, Sheldon said the goal is to keep business going as usual to avoid disruption to customers and employees.

“We are looking for an individual or group of owners that understands the legacy of Vroman’s and wants to continue our core values,” Sheldon told Eyewitness News in January.

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Also Read: An Unexpected Retailer Is Now Closing All Stores in Illinois

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