The Reverse Okies: Go East Young Man!

The LA Times recently reported on the flight of young professionals from coastal California into the Central Valley.

The last great frontier for upward mobility in California extends from the far eastern suburbs of greater Los Angeles to the Sierra foothills in Northern California. It is there that the "California dream" -- a place to create a new life and raise a family -- is still possible. Call it the "Third California."

That may come as a surprise. Some coastal residents regard inland California as a failed geography of rising poverty, crummy jobs and unremitting ugliness. But in recent years, more and more higher-end and professional jobs have begun moving east, and with them a new emphasis on improving the quality of life in such cities as Bakersfield, Modesto, Ontario and Riverside...

Coastal Californians migrating inland do so for many of the same reasons that earlier generations of Americans left the Midwest, Northeast and South. The cost of housing is by far the biggest factor driving the migration. Today, only 11% of the households in San Francisco and Orange counties, and 17% in heavily minority L.A. County, can afford a median-priced house. By contrast, affordability rates, though down from earlier this decade, are closer to 30% in most inland regions.

For many, this means the future lies east, and families are prominent in this movement. The under-35 population in the inland region has increased dramatically, and from 2000 to 2004, the number of children younger than 15 rose faster in inland areas that along coastal California, according to 2004 census data...

The challenges in Third California are many. Much of the job growth has been heavily dependent on population movement, which has sparked a boom in construction and lower-paying retail jobs. A sharp decline in housing construction, or even a mild slowdown in migration patterns, would leave much of the region vulnerable to a downturn...

[T]he 2000 census revealed that in Sacramento and the Inland Empire, the number of educated people were on the rise. Most intriguing, these areas experienced a nearly 40% growth in residents with graduate degrees, a rate of increase larger than along the southern coast and close to Bay Area levels.

Meanwhile, future professionals still in school better look farther east, says a Sac State columnist.

It was "The Grapes of Wrath," the novel that told of the "Okies" from Oklahoma travelling to California in the 1930s during the Dust Bowl. Some 70 years later in a twist of irony, a "Bust Bowl" is occurring from the West to the Midwest.

Last year, many members of my family became fed up with the traffic, housing costs, crime rates and overall congestion in California and declared, "Oklahoma or Bust!" I thought they were out of their minds. Leaving the fifth largest economy with its beaches and rolling mountains to return to the the dry, flat lands that most our ancestors once fled?

After visiting my, dare I say it, Okie family (they aren't true Okies, only posers), I began to understand their reasoning as I pushed stereotypes aside and started viewing the region with an open mind...

A bachelor's degree lately has begun to shrink in value, and with the average house in the Sacramento area costing over $400,000, individuals about to exit college are going to have difficulty cropping up enough cash to own any sort of property within a decent amount of time...

I found an Oklahoma City home that is 5,000 square feet with five bedrooms, four bathrooms on an acre of land for $375,000. Can I get a candy bar for that here?

I know there are downsides to living in Oklahoma. The value of land is lower and so are salaries. However, I will put it as my mother did, who has a bachelor's degree from Old Dominion University: Despite the salary differences, with an education you can make enough in one year in Oklahoma to own a small house. It may take ten years to do so in California...

I am far from packing the wagon and migrating to the state that the Joad family left in the '30s, but I will no longer rule it out. There is only so much a yuppie can do in a state that forces you to either make $60,000 a year or ... Bust!