Grass Is Really Greener for Many Californians Leaving the State

Here are the morning’s top stories on Monday, April 6, 2026

• Want a better life? Move out of California. Well, sort of. According to a new study from the California Policy Lab, the Golden State’s high cost of living is still squeezing residents and pushing them out of the state.
• President Trump is endorsing Republican Steve Hilton in the race for California governor.
• California is suing the Trump administration again, this time over the president’s executive order to give the US Postal Service new powers to oversee voting by mail. 
• An affordable housing project in Crescent City plans to restart construction soon after a series of setbacks.

California affordability challenges shaping who’s leaving the state

As the cost of living continues to soar in California, more and more people are considering relocating and moving out of state.

A new study from UC Berkeley’s California Policy Lab examines who’s leaving, where they’re going and and what happens to their finances after they move. The findings suggest that affordability plays a major role in Californians’ relocation decisions. And Californians who leave move to much more affordable areas and see large increases in home ownership, on average.

“The affordability crisis in the state does seem to be impacting where people move and perhaps even the choice to move,” said California Policy Lab Executive Director Evan White. “Though when people leave the state, they are moving to much more affordable communities than the ones that they lived in in California. The housing costs in those communities are close to $700 cheaper than in the neighborhoods that they left. And then I should say the home prices in the new neighborhoods are $398,000 less.”

Researchers were able to track movers during the years after they leave California. And Californians who left the state were much more likely to own a home a few years later. That likelihood grows over time.  Seven years after leaving California, movers were 11 percentage points (or 48%) more likely to be a homeowner than those who stayed in the state, even after controlling for age. By contrast, those who chose to move to California were only 6 percentage points (or 27%) more likely to be homeowners seven years after arriving than they were before they came to California.

Trump endorses Republican Steve Hilton in governor’s race 

President Donald Trump has endorsed Republican Steve Hilton for California governor, reordering a crowded, wide-open race to lead the nation’s most populous state.

Trump posted late Sunday on his social media platform Truth Social that he has known Hilton for years and called the conservative commentator “a truly fine man” who could turn around a state beset with notoriously high taxes. California, Trump wrote, “has gone to hell.” “With Federal help, and a Great Governor, like Steve Hilton, California can be better than ever before!” Trump added.

The endorsement — coming about a month before mail ballots go to voters in advance of the June 2 primary — will help Hilton coalesce conservative support in a race with no clear leader. However, Trump is widely unpopular in heavily Democratic California outside his conservative base and Trump’s backing would become a liability if Hilton faces a Democrat in the November election.

With a large field, Democrats have been fearful that a quirk in the state’s unusual “top two” primary system could allow only two Republicans to reach the November general election ballot — Hilton and GOP rival Chad Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff. Trump’s decision — a strong signal to undecided conservative voters — will make that outcome less likely by helping Hilton lure additional support.

California sues to block Trump’s order on vote-by-mail

California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed suit on Friday to block President Donald Trump’s executive order that gives the United States Postal Service new power to oversee vote-by-mail.

Trump’s order is the latest move in his crusade to limit mail voting, which he has described without evidence as a source of “massive cheating” in elections. In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Massachusetts, Bonta and nearly two dozen attorneys general argue that Trump is attempting a “shocking and unprecedented power grab” ahead of the 2026 election.

“The president doesn’t have authority over the time, place and manner of elections in the states, and he knows that,” Bonta said in a press call announcing the suit.

Since 2021, California has mailed all registered voters a ballot by default before each election. In the state’s 2025 special election, nearly 89% of voters cast a vote-by-mail ballot — which includes ballots returned to drop boxes, polling places and through the mail. Trump’s order would require the Department of Homeland Security to send each state a list of U.S. citizens who will be 18 by the next election. States would then have to send the United States Postal Service a list of eligible voters for the election. Under the order, the USPS would not return ballots from voters unless they appear on the states’ list.

In the lawsuit, Bonta and the other attorneys general argue that the Constitution vests the powers to regulate elections solely with the states and Congress.

Crescent City affordable housing project plans to restart after costly setbacks

Construction on the Battery Point Apartments in Crescent City is expected to resume in the coming weeks after months of delays caused by storms, water damage and construction challenges.

Battery Point will include 162 units, with a mix of workforce housing for families, apartments for low-income seniors and two units for managers. Project leaders say the goal is to provide housing in Del Norte County, which has experienced one of the highest population declines in the country.

Construction stalled after storms caused water damage and prevented site work. Additional delays came from unexpected seismic remediation needs, according to Bill Rice, president of Synergy Community Development Corp., the project’s developer. “All these things create kind of a cycle of slowing the process for what we desperately want to deliver, [which] is quality affordable housing for those senior residents because there’s huge demand for it,” he said.

The original geotechnical report incorrectly listed the soil conditions on the site, Rice said. That meant more work had to be done to strengthen the structures, especially the apartments for seniors, which are modular construction. Crews had to remove the entire bottom floor of each module, lift the structures so workers could reinforce them with new steel beams and then replace the flooring.

Battery Point is now about a year behind schedule. Rice said he expects to resume in the next couple of weeks, with a planned opening date in mid- to late-2027.