Are you considering moving? Have you thought about why people move? Should you move? When to move, where to move? Well, that’s a great question. In this video, I’m going to give you ten reasons or common reasons why people decide to move. I’ll give you my own example. 

Way back when I was 19, I came to Anaheim Hills to visit a friend of mine. I fell in love with Anaheim Hills. At that time, I was just a student. 15 years later, when I was about 32, 34, I ended up moving to Anaheim Hills. It’s just that I wanted to move for no reason. I fell in love with this place, the hills, the mountains, the area that Anaheim Hills offers. So I moved because of that. But there are ten valid reasons. So let’s talk about those reasons why people may consider moving.

1.) So, for the first reason why people move is because of better opportunities or job locations. You might be working at a company for five years, ten years, and they give you a promotion and they say, hey, you have to move to Chicago or Dallas or Austin or New York and we’ll raise your pay. So if you are considering a higher pay, a better lifestyle, a better location, you may consider moving. And a lot of people do move or not move. So change of business, change of jobs, promotions, or just change of a completely new job, higher pay are common reasons and probably the number one reason people decide to move. So that’s reason number one. 

2.) Family, friends and change of your status. I had some friends who were living in Los Angeles County and their parents were living in Orange County. The couple got married, had kids, so they actually moved to Orange County so they can be closer to their parents who can help them babysit. Somebody may get married and they want to move to the spouse or to the spouse’s family. You may want to move to your mom or dad who’s not doing well or need some help financially, physically or health issues. So family, friends is another top reason why people move, whether it’s local, within counties, within states, or even out of states.

3.) The housing and living expenses, or just the cost of living. Right now we have high inflation. Gas prices are high. Natural gas prices are high. My gas bill was an average of $100. In January, it came to $330, triple the amount. So prices have really gone up. One of the biggest expense is our housing expense. I’ll give you an example. The national U.S median home price is about $380,000-$390,000 California median home price is almost $750,000. Arizona is around $460,000. Louisiana, the median home price there in 2023 is right around $260,000. So the question is, when things are very expensive, the cost of living is very high.

Should you move to California? Should you buy a house in California? Average price of $750,000. Orange county, where I live in Anaheim Hills, the median home price is over a million dollars. If I’m thinking of buying, should I buy in California or Anaheim Hills and pay a million dollars? Or if I work from home, or if I have a better opportunity, should I move to Texas or should I move to Louisiana or Montana where I could half the price of my home and get a bigger home and a bigger yard? So housing expenses, living expenses is a big factor and it is very important that you live comfortably. You may have a great job, you may have a good business. But if you’re making a lot of money and 40%-50% of your payment is going towards your living expense, that is not very good. In Los Angeles County right now, the rents are so high that on average the rental cost is approaching almost 50% of your income. That is ridiculous. How can you make a living when half your paycheck goes towards your rental? You don’t even own a house. 

Or even if you own a house, you can’t survive with paying 40%-50% of your payment to housing. So to make better choices, you may have to move out of the area, buy a cheaper home and cut back your expenses. That’s a great reason to move. 

4.) The other reason people move is because of health reasons. They want to move to a better area. For example, a lot of people I know; I go to Palm Springs a lot and I know they say a lot of the people come from New York or from Canada. So people move six months out of the year or maybe three months out of the year. This is just an example because it’s better weather. When it’s really freezing in New York or Boston or Canada or other places. 

People move to Arizona, Florida, Texas, even temporarily or permanently because of better health. I did not know this, but when I sold a house, the gentleman who moved, he was 75 years old, he moved to Arizona. He said, I’m moving to a place, it’s very hot over there. It gets over 100 degrees temperature almost for a couple of months. But he’s moving there because he had arthritis, because he lived near Huntington Beach. The weather did not suit his lifestyle because of arthritis and other health issues. So the doctor suggested he moved to warmer areas, warmer temperatures, and he decided to move to Arizona because it was a lot warmer. And that was good for his arthritis and rheumatism. Who knew? But good reason. 

5.) Several issues combined together. It could be crime rates in a certain area. Right now in LA County, for example, even in Orange County, where I live, there’s homelessness issues. So certain areas are not very safe. Certain areas you cannot walk like you could before. There’s a trail down the street where I live, a couple of miles away, and there’s a lot of homeless people. And I know a lot of people used to walk early in the morning. They avoid that area now because of safety concerns. So crime is a big issue. Homelessness is a big issue. So issues like these make people move. They want to go to safer areas. Back 7-10 years ago, Chicago was a high crime area. And I know some of my friends moved out of Chicago because of high crime. They moved to safer areas. I’m in Anaheim Hills, a lot of homes that I sell, people move here because of better schools, but it’s also a safer area. 

Irvine, one of the safest places in USA. A lot of people move to Irvine, California, because the rating for safety is very good. So people move there, pay a high price. But, hey, if they want a safer area, low crime area, low homelessness area, they move to certain areas. So crime and certain issues related to crime area big reason why people are moving today and more than ever, because crime is getting higher and higher.

Look at how many shootings we hear on a daily basis, even in cities like Beverly Hills and other areas, which is rare, but it’s becoming more and more common. High crimes, a good reason to move out.

6.) Education. I remember there’s a high school in Fullerton. Troy high School. A lot of the buyers there who have kids going to high school move to certain areas because they want their kids to go to Troy High School. And now, of course, the better the high school, the more the home values in Anaheim Hills. We are in the Orange Unified School District. A lot of the buyers that call me, the first question they ask is, how is the education system? How is the school system? And I tell them it’s great. Check out online to make sure it’s what you want. 

But people pick areas like education to move into certain areas. My son went to Chapman University, and of course he was local. But I have a friend of mine whose son just started going to Chapman University. So the son moved to City of Orange, obviously because it’s closer, but because the parents come here so often, the parents are considered moving to Orange County from LA County because they like the area. They want to be near the university because the son is going to find a job near the university because he does not want to move out of that area. So education, schools, universities, hospitals with education, all these make a big difference. Churches may make a difference. So there’s a lot of reasons, and education is one of the bigger reasons why people may move. 

On the other hand, people do move out of high priced areas where there’s great education, great schools, great universities. I sold a house in LA a couple of years ago because the retired couple said, we are getting a very high price because people want to go to USC, and it’s very hard to find even rentals in USC. They sold their home because they were getting a high price and they did not need to be near that university anymore. So they moved to Arizona, took all that cash, paid cash over there and living their dreams. So education people move towards or they may move outside of the area to take advantage. 

7.) Change of environment. I’m actively looking for a house right now. This gentleman or a couple that is retired are near the Paso Robles area. They’ve lived there all their life there. It’s a very small community they live in, a lot of their friends and family, and the associates are in Orange County. But guess what? They want to move to Orange County. And I talk to them. Why do you want to move to Orange County? And they gave me several reasons. 

One is that their friends and family are here and as they retire they want to do things together with them. The second thing is they like to go hiking. They like to go to Big Bear type of areas, which is a mountainous area, hills area, there’s snowing over there. They also like to go to the desert in Palm Springs area because they like to play tennis, they also play golf. So they want to go there. And it’s much closer from Orange County. Of course they are from the Paso Robles area, which is pretty much close to the beach over there. 

And Orange County offers you Newport Beach and Coron del Mar. And so many beaches. 

So they have the lifestyle of the beaches and also all the restaurants. They want a complete change of lifestyle. They’ve stayed in the small community, tied up and cooped up for all these years. Now that they’ve retired, they want to explore so many different things and Orange County has so much to offer, and I’m just giving Orange County as an example, but there’s so many other areas that they could go to, but they picked this area because of the different things they offer. So they want a complete lifestyle change. So they are moving gladly and willingly. 

8.) Climate. I mentioned earlier that the warmer climate is better for some of the retired people, so they move over there. But some people may want to move out of Arizona because it’s too hot and come to California or go to Florida or some other places. So people move because of weather. 

I know I have a friend of mine in Boston and every time I talk to him in winter he’s plowing out snow in the morning whereas I’m trying to talk to people in the morning and he’s getting tired of that. So he may eventually move out of Boston Because he’s tired of the snow that comes every year and it’s very cold. He’s getting older, his wife has health issues. 

9.) Moving near the family out of necessity or out of convenience. Like I said, some people want to be with their families just because they want to be close to the family. But sometimes you have to move closer to your family because you are forced to move to near the family. 

Health reasons, finance reasons, social reasons, whatever the reason, it’s convenient to live near your family and friends because it is a necessity. So people move for that reason, even if they may not want to move. But they have to move for certain situations. And that’s another reason people move closer to the family. 

10.) They want a change of pace of lifestyle. I remember that if I move when I retire or when I grow up, I want to move to Sedona. I’ve been hustling and working really hard in real estate and other businesses that I own that if I retire, I’ll either go to Sedona or Maui. That’s my go to place. And one day I will. 

But some people move because they are stressed out. Imagine living in New York City. You have nine to five job, you have kids. California. Los Angeles is very busy. The hustle and the bustle. So people want to move out to different areas, quieter areas. They may want to move to Las Vegas, eventhough Las Vegas is a very busy place. It’s a different lifestyle. You may want to go 20 miles away from Vegas. I had some friends of mine that move near Paramp. It’s a very quiet city. There’s golf courses there. They enjoy their lifestyle. They get up in the morning, they walk and go play golf and forget about the hustle and bustle in the bigger cities like New York City, Chicago, Manhattan, Los Angeles. So just change of pace. 

Or some people that have been living in areas that are very quiet, they may want to move to a different area where they have movies and beaches and theaters and other things like Orange County. You can go to the mountains within an hour. You can go to the beach, you can go to dinner. So, change of lifestyle. Going from a hustle and bustle to a quiet lifeor a quiet life to an experience more trendy life.