By Angela Gonzales | Phoenix Business Journal
Affordable rental rates and home prices in metro Phoenix continue to attract Southern California residents in droves, according to a report by the University of Southern California Lusk Center for Real Estate.
While it’s no surprise to local real estate experts, the USC Casden Multifamily Forecast shows how the lack of Southern California’s affordable housing is impacting that area’s economy.
Christopher Thornberg, economist and founder of Los Angeles-based Beacon Economics, also contributed to that report.
He ran some numbers for the Phoenix Business Journal and found that of the total 367,913 people moving to metro Phoenix in 2017 and 2018, about 37,000 moved from the Los Angeles, Orange County and Inland Empire areas in 2017 and 2018.
“This is gross flow, not net,” Thornberg said. “We haven’t subtracted people moving from Phoenix to LA, Orange County and Inland Empire.”
The majority of those Californians coming to metro Phoenix are lacking in higher education degrees, with 3,308 coming with graduate degrees, 6,554 with bachelor’s degrees and 12,601 with only some college. Meanwhile, 5,623 have high school diplomas and another 9,454 have less than a high school diploma.
“Young people are moving there, moving with their parents. Those are people making choices about housing,” he said. “A massive inflow of people makes Arizona one of the fastest growing economies in the nation because people are moving there.”
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