These California cities are drawing the most movers

• More people are leaving California's cities than arriving.
• But some cities, such as Oceanside and Redding, are drawing more people than are leaving.
• As long as enough people are moving in, housing costs will likely remain high in California.

California has reputation for people moving out because of its sky-high cost of living, but there are plenty of cities still drawing fresh arrivals.

According to moving company iMoving, which reviewed arrivals through its platform from January 2023 to March 2025, there were nearly 13% of people moving out of California, but those losses were partially offset by around 8% of moves coming into the Golden State.

“Moving trends are a good sign of whether homes will get more or less expensive,” iMoving CEO Meyr Aviv told ConsumerAffairs. “If people keep moving in, there’s no reason for sellers to lower their prices."

Los Angeles had the highest share of arrivals, with around 9.2%, followed by San Diego (3.7%), San Francisco (3.3%), Fresno (3%) and Oceanside (2.6%) as the rest of the top five most popular California cities for movers. 

Still, there are only a few cities drawing more people than those leaving, known as net arrivals.

Oceanside has the highest share of net arrivals, with 2.6%, followed by Redding (1.5%), Antioch (1.1%) and Bakersfield (1.1%).

"As long as there’s more arrivals than departures, I wouldn’t hold my breath for cheaper housing.” Aviv said.

The cities with the highest net departures, meaning losing more people than gaining, are San Jose, with with around 3% of net departures, followed by Pasadena (2.7%), Citrus Heights (1.4%) and Long Beach (1.4%). 

“In California, homes are expensive all over," Aviv said. "I think buyers were hoping all the bad press would shut down certain housing markets, make them cheaper or cool down prices. But it turns out, it doesn’t stop people from moving in."