Golden State retirees are leaving California by the thousands

I have an acquaintance who retired as a CA state employee, and was able to sell his CA house (probably with low or no mortgage balance) for a huge chunk of cash. Then he moved here (SW WA State) and bought a nice house, and a giant RV, with that cash, and he lives pretty richly on his CA pension. For him, it was a no-brainer, as the cost of living is lower here and he greatly improved his situation. He got a bigger, better house and better weather (including better protection from climate change here), and his living costs are lower. That's why many thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of Californians are moving to OR, WA, and ID. It makes one wonder if there are enough homebuyers in CA to soak up all that slack.

But for us, the picture is different. He is a big load on CA taxpayers, and he's a loss to CA's economy (he's not spending his CA pension there). California is paying him, but he's spending that money in Washington. And this migration is raising real estate prices here, with their all-cash offers to buy homes here. Multiply that by thousands like him, and I ask: is this all good, or not?

One thing I would do, if I were California, is say, "You can have your entire pension if you live in CA, or we'll pay you half of it if you live somewhere else." That would tend to keep the CA-paid pension money circulating in CA, which would benefit that state, and it makes a ton of sense. And with so many cities and geographic locations, it is easy to find a place you'd like to live, somewhere in CA. 

Aside from that, I'm not what to do, if anything, about this phenomenon. I like Californians, and we all of course believe in the free right of movement within our country. We're all immigrants to our country and our state (even Native Americans, who came here first among all humans). 

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