There are a whole lot of opinions in this thread, many of which lacking facts. Certainly we are all entitled to our opinions, but it would do the BP membership more justice with facts outweighing opinions on these topics.
"Mass exodus" is a media term for the fact that CA had a net domestic migration loss in 2020 higher than all other 49 states. NY was second on that list! The population actually did lose in 2020 and stayed flat in 2019, years prior having gains. These gains come from births and international migration. LA is a melting pot for this. The media spins the news to create drama to create profits. Here in SO Cal this week, we had "winter storm warnings" all over the news. Ask anyone from any northern state and they would laugh their azz off at such a news story. This is all fact.
The CA population continues to vote in absurd propositions written by absurd politicians and our legislatures don't seem to have a clue about finances. You can mock the big businesses that have left (many already mentioned in this thread) and say happy trails but the $15 per hour low wages one poster was claiming is NOT the story to that. When Elon left, he took a ton of income to CA away from CA. TX incentivized him to come. Why? They did some accounting and it made sense. CA does the opposite. They continue to make it the most costly state to run a business, they make building homes the most costly with silly rules, regulations and time wasting bureaucracies. They institute "affordable housing" initiatives and at the same time, initiate new laws that make the cost to build more. These are the issues that we face here in CA and unfortunately, they are all born from those seeking office, power, and keeping their office.
One poster mentioned that the exodus was made up. That is certainly not true, just look at the facts. However, another asked why are housing prices continuing to climb. That is because despite the net migration loss (which -200k of 39+M people is a small percentage), the politicians have done literally nothing to feed the inventory for housing as CA has the highest demand and lowest inventory of housing and it has been that way for over two decades. With the population growth over the past 3 decades, the housing inventory has not kept up. The ONE and only thing I can find that helped (or will help slightly) is the new ADU laws past in CA. But lot's face the facts, even with that great new law, it will not put a significant dent in the supply/demand imbalance.
When I build a new home here, I am required to install rain harvesting tanks (or rain planters) based on the square footage of the roof. They require the tanks themselves, a pad to set them on, downspouts from gutters to connect into the tank and then drainage for overflow of the tanks out to the street. So in other words, the politicians great idea to "conserve water" for our drought was this, yet any new house I and others build also comes with auto sprinklers and they are often purchased by well to do millennials or 50+ year olds who wouldn't consider attaching a hose to the tanks to hand water what is already automatically watered by the sprinkler systems. So ultimately, we builders spend thousands of extra wasted dollars so the water from the roof now routes direct to the street curb instead of within the yard (if the downspouts were not connected to rain tanks). Both a waste of money and a waste of water. So much for affordable housing.
Anyways, enough of my rant on the politics here in CA, the moral of this post is to look at the facts, not just opinions. Mass exodus is just a media term, look at net migration/population/incomes/home prices/home inventory levels/etc. These facts will answer your questions. No, CA is not going to become a ghost town, on the contrary, it will continue to rise in population, however, the quality and level of the incomes of CA will continue to be hampered by the politicians so long as Californian's continue to elect these same politicians. It is a sad but true fact and yet I am not letting any of these idiots kick me out of my State. I will just find a way, just as I find a way to shift my business to adapt to market changes.
