1 in 4 Americans wish they could live in California

This place ain't perfect but it's probably a dream home for young people trapped in small "nothing ever happens" towns throughout the US.

Me, circa 1985: “Why are there so many cars on the road?”

My mom: “Honey, everyone wants to live here.”

She’s shocked at how packed it is now.

Population of US: 330 mil.

US population who wants to live in LA: 66 mil.

RIP commute

Good luck!

EDIT: Headline is very misleading. Survey was actually "IF MONEY WERE NO OBJECT"... which then, yeah, of course you'd pick LA.

Despite the desire to live in the Golden State or the City of Angels, it’s actually Austin, Texas, Raleigh, North Carolina and Orlando, Florida where people surveyed have decided to move.

Surprising, 2 of the top 3 places people move to aren't even in the top 9 list of desired places to move to. Have to assume people putting all their eggs in the buy a house basket

I ❤️ LA. It ain’t perfect but I wouldn’t move anywhere else. People forget that things seem “cheaper” in other cities or states but it’s because their wages are much lower. It’s all the same in the end.

I wonder what percentage of LA residents want to live elsewhere.

And this is why cost of living/​housing will never fall here. There’s more demand than could ever be met

I never ever considered living in LA, a month before I graduated from a state school in Illinois I signed up for an internship in LA and have been here almost 15 years. LA is my home now the longest I’ve ever been in one place. Though I am getting priced out and not sure if I’ll make it to 20 years

Well, I’m one of those Americans who did move. I moved to LA three weeks ago, and I love it! Im from New York, but LA has more opportunities as a young person for creative things. LA has amazing weather and great schools here too.

LA was the best in my mid 20’s - late 30s. Especially when I figured out my career and could afford all the various entertaining options it provides.

You would think LA is about 90% homeless camps and dumpster fires based on the media, Meanwhike they conviently ignore the list of States with the most poverty. Why? Because those are 90% red states and filled with the people living in those states are who is clicking on the “ LA is hell!” videos and articles. Of course there are problems but there's plenty of problems in Mississippi and Arkansas. Confirmation biad eqsls clicks.

Perhaps if there’s skyscrapers in century city and ktown like in the movie Her there will be enough density for that many people one day.

I want to live in a world where 20% of Americans are Angelenos. That's a better world.

This is ultimately the primary driver of why LA’s ratio of housing prices versus median incomes far exceed other parts of the country, including other large cities. Building more housing supply will help lower prices, but there’s also a virtually limitless amount of demand for housing in LA.

It’s also a primary driver of our homelessness crisis here. More journalists (e.g. Jerusalem Demsas) are starting to catch on to this concept, that lack of income and poverty is not the issue because there are many impoverished people in other states and cities yet those places have less homelessness, despite spending less on housing support than we do here in LA. Our issue is that too many people simply insist on living in LA when they can’t afford to do so.

Canada is experiencing a similar demand-side problem. Canada is the world’s second largest country by land, while having a population approximately only as large as California’s. There’s plenty of space to grow, yet they’re also experiencing a “housing affordability crisis.” Why? Because they all uncreatively want to live in the same 3 or 4 cities.

We can’t all stand on the same postage stamp.

L.A. is full, sorry. We need the space for avocado trees.

Hard to take this survey seriously when Baltimore cracks the top 10.

Seems like 1 in 2 New Yorkers want to live here.

The curse of being born here is being priced out but not having anywhere else to be able to move because all of your roots are here.

Being born and raised in LA, I've lived abroad a few times. I've definitely gotten better/​more interested reactions from people when I answer their, "Where are you from?" question with Los Angeles.

Fellow American expats from the midwest or whatever just say they are American lol.

All joking aside, LA still has a mystique from all the movies and tv shows that use it as their setting. I think the biggest surprise for me about LA, even California in general, is about the houses. Very few have basements, a part of the house that is famous in other parts of the country as a place to live when you don’t have enough money to move out of your parents’ house. Also the amount of land most properties have here, even in multimillion dollar homes, is really small. A backyard here is really just enough to have a casual cookout, maybe a wading pool, and a few lawn chairs. Back east it’s more common to have a large back yard, maybe some woods further back, could be big enough to have a kids soccer or football game. And then when it snows the kids can go sledding. The amount of land per home is definitely smaller. But overall the convenience and weather/​proximity to the beach is hard to beat.

0 out of 5 can actually afford to live in Los Angeles

And yet Republicans say that people are "leaving California in droves". They really do live in a fantasy world.

Film, television, streaming, music - all make it look far too enticing.

Don’t do it, folks. Stay where you are, or maybe try Florida or Washington if you must.