Californians moving to Houston can save up to $646,000, study finds

money moves

These could all be Californians for all we know. Photo via Local.AllState.com

Does it seem that Californians really are everywhere here in Houston? Here's why: A report by online storage finding platform StorageCafe has revealed just how much money the average Californian saves by taking on the title of transplant and relocating to the Lone Star State.

And more people from Los Angeles and Contra Costa counties are choosing Houston over any other area in Texas.

The migration report, which was released this summer by StorageCafe, states about 111,000 people moved to Texas from the Golden State in 2021, while only 33,000 Texans made the opposite move to California that same year.

The reasons why so many are flocking to Texas seem obvious: the lack of income tax, a lower cost of living, and the rise of remote work flexibility. These factors proved to be vastly important for millennials, who made up a majority of the transplants (46 percent).

Californians looking for a permanent Texas home can save hundreds of thousands of dollars by turning to Houston's booming housing market, where median home prices cost about $403,490.

With homes in San Diego ringing up for nearly $870,000, transplants can save $466,278 by buying a house in Houston. The Californians that save the most money on a new house hail from Orange County, where median prices cost over a million dollars. They can save $646,510 by purchasing a Houston home.

Renting an apartment in Houston is another financially advantageous move for California transplants, and will get them a larger space than what they can find in their home state. Rent prices in major California cities like San Diego and Los Angeles easily cost more than $2,600 a month, which is a far cry from Houston's median rent price of $1,336 per month.

Even for that amount of money, renters relocating to Houston from Orange, Los Angeles, and San Diego counties can easily find apartments that are over 500 square feet bigger.

StorageCafe's sister site Yardi Matrix's business intelligence manager Doug Ressler gave his thoughts in the report about the major factors that keep motivating Californians to make that move to Texas.

"Inflation continues to be a major concern, putting a financial strain on many people as they spend more of their income on typical expenses," he said. "As a result, moving to places that are easier on the wallet seems like the obvious solution, with many people crossing city and state lines to find a more suitable place to live."

The trend is not likely to slow down anytime soon, either.

"Over the first two decades of the 21st century, the movement of people leaving California for Texas has been well established," Ressler said. "No other state has sent more migrants to Texas than California during this time. The continual soaring housing prices and cost of living in California and much greater affordability in Texas is likely to sustain the significant flows of Californians toward Texas in the coming decades."

The study's findings were determined using census data between 2017 and 2021 from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) Survey Documentation and Analysis (SDA) tool. Home pricing information was found using data from real estate platform Point2.

The full study can be found on storagecafe.com.

------

This article originally ran on CultureMap.

From Your Site Articles
Here's how Houston and Texas fared on a new electric vehicle report. Photo via Getty Images

Texas ranks high on new EV study, but Houston was outpaced by other metros

driving toward progress

A new study shows that Texas is among the top of the pack for states with the most electric vehicle registrations. But Houston falls behind other large metros in the state for EV friendliness.

The March report from StorageCafe, which compiled data from the Federal Transit Administration, the Federal Highway Administration, the Department of Energy and other sources, showed that Texas had the third-most EV registrations in the county in 2021 at 112,000 vehicles.

California outpaced the rest of the country by a longshot with 878,000 registrations, claiming the number one spot. Florida had the second-most registrations at 128,000.

The report also looked at EV friendliness, which factored in EV registrations as well as the number of charging stations per household, EV exemptions, incentives and various other factors.

Houston was ranked 32nd on the friendliness list. The report found that Bayou City drivers registered 27,251 EVs in 2021. Charging stations are available in about 3.8 percent of rental buildings and there are 0.2 charging stations for every 1,000 households in the city.

Dallas claimed the top spot for the state at No. 15 with more than 29,000 EV registrations in 2021. Though Dallas has the same ratio of EV charging stations per household, there are more charging stations in rental buildings in the city.

Austin, at No. 22, also outranked Houston. Though the capital city only registered 8,730 EVs in 2021 there are much more charging stations per household (0.7 for every 1,000) and in rental buildings (5.5 percent).

San Antonio came in at No. 36, the McAllen area at No. 75, and El Paso at No. 83.

Seattle was named the friendliest place to own an EV. The drivers in the city registered more than 47,000 EVs in 2021.

Doug Ressler, a business intelligence manager at Yardi Matrix, which contributed to the report, weighed in on the findings.

“The electric car movement is gaining momentum, but it isn’t without its challenges. The high price of an EV–although brought down by incentives now – range and charging stations still pose some problems," he said in a statement. "However, with the expansion of the charging network–including in apartment buildings–and the gradual lowering of the EV price, buying and using an EV can become mainstream in the foreseeable future."

He also estimated that EVs will "dominate the car market" by 2045. By 2050, he said EVs could make up about 90 percent of the market.

Earlier this month Hertz announced that it would triple Houston's electric rental fleet, as well as add a fast-charging hub to Hobby Airport that's designed to serve ride-hail, taxi fleets and the general public.

So many Newstonians are coming in from California. Photo courtesy of TxDOT

Houston leads Texas in most Californians relocating from this county, says new study

GOLDEN STATE TO LONE STAR STATE

The Hollywood-to-Houston population pipeline is overflowing, a new study suggests.

Harris County ranks as the No. 1 destination for people relocating to Texas from California, according to a StorageCafé data analysis. The No. 1 place of origin? Los Angeles County, home to Hollywood.

Among California counties, Harris County attracted the most new arrivals from Los Angeles County in 2019 (3,263), followed by San Diego County (840), and Riverside County (698).

Why are Californians swapping the West Coast for the Gulf Coast? A prime reason appears to be housing costs. The analysis shows the median price difference in 2020 between a home in Los Angeles County and a home in Harris County was $482,010. And even though they're paying less for a home in Harris County, L.A. transplants are gaining a median 577 square feet in additional space.

"When housing prices in California go up, so does migration to Texas. When housing prices in California go down, migration to Texas goes down as well," William Fulton, director of Rice University's Kinder Institute for Urban Research, tells StorageCafé, a self-storage platform.

Looking at the California-to-Texas connection, Los Angeles County holds the top seven spots in the ranking of counties that send the most new residents to our state. Here are the top seven:

  1. Los Angeles County to Harris County (3,263 new residents in 2019).
  2. Los Angeles County to Dallas County (2,492 new residents in 2019).
  3. Los Angeles County to Travis County (2,060 new residents in 2019).
  4. Los Angeles County to Collin County (1,609 new residents in 2019).
  5. Los Angeles County to Tarrant County (1,374 new residents in 2019).
  6. Los Angeles County to Bexar County (1,366 new residents in 2019).
  7. Los Angeles County to Denton County (1,290 new residents in 2019).

"Elon Musk is well on his way to being the first human on Mars, but he's far from being a pioneer when it comes to moving to Texas. His recent move to the state is just one among the almost 190 daily moves from California to Texas that occurred from 2010 to 2019," StorageCafé says.

Here are the top 10 counties for new arrivals from all California counties in 2019:

  1. Harris County — 8,408.
  2. Dallas County — 7,923.
  3. Travis County — 6,725.
  4. Tarrant County — 6,623.
  5. Bexar County — 5,340.
  6. Collin County — 5,294.
  7. Denton County — 4,028.
  8. Williamson County — 2,877.
  9. El Paso County — 2,521.
  10. Bell County — 1,727.
------

This article originally ran on CultureMap.

Houston's top Google searches include toilet paper, freezing milk, and bottled water. . Pexels

Here's what Houstonians asked the internet amid coronavirus outbreak

search me

No doubt, Houstonians and other Texans are tremendously curious about toilet paper these days. If you've seen any news coverage or been to a grocery store lately, you know how coveted a roll of toilet paper is.

But you might be surprised by which other things we're searching for online during the coronavirus pandemic. One of the more eye-opening queries? "Freeze milk."

A study published March 20 by self-storage marketplace StorageCafé tracked about 50 of the most popular Google searches for items or queries pertaining to three coronavirus-related categories: food and beverages, cleaning, and health.

Google Trends measures interest about a certain term on a scale from zero to 100 points. Zero means that few people are searching for that particular term, while 100 signifies peak interest.

In the Houston area, according to StorageCafé, the peak-interest terms as of March 15 focused on toilet paper and "freeze milk" as well as:

  • Bottled water
  • Vitamin C
  • Thermometers
  • Diapers

All of those scored 100 on the Google Trends scale, StorageCafé says.

Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, and San Antonio also registered scores of 100 for searches regarding toilet paper, freezing milk, vitamin C, and diapers.

DFW and Austin shared the highest level of curiosity about thermometers. Meanwhile, residents of the Austin and San Antonio areas were clamoring for information related to "food supply." People in the San Antonio area also were furiously searching for information about canned food and hand sanitizer.

Getting back to that milk query: Yes, you can freeze most types of milk, and the nutritional benefits will remain.

Milk expands when it's frozen, so leave room in the storage container to prevent it from bursting, the Dairy Council of California advises. Just make sure the milk hasn't passed its sell-by date.

"After you have frozen your milk, it can be thawed in the refrigerator or in cold water and is safe for consumption," the council says. "However, be aware that the flavor and texture of the milk may be affected."

------

This article originally ran on CultureMap.

Harris County welcomed more new out-of-state arrivals than any other county in Texas. Getty Images

Houston area tops Texas with biggest population of out-of-state residents

New to Hou

In the late 1800s through the mid-1950s, New York City's Ellis Island — sitting in the Statue of Liberty's shadow — served as the entry point for millions of new arrivals to the U.S.

Houston doesn't have its own version of Ellis Island, but perhaps it deserves a symbolic one to commemorate the flood of new arrivals from other states.

In 2017, Harris County welcomed more new out-of-state arrivals (81,781) than any other county in Texas, according to a data analysis released December 9 by StorageCafé, a self-storage marketplace.

That influx stands to reason, since Harris County is the state's largest county as measured by population (more than 4 million and counting). Still, it's astounding that Harris County attracted almost as many new arrivals as the entire population of Conroe (87,654 in 2018).

StorageCafé based its analysis on data published last year by the U.S. Census Bureau. The analysis excludes new arrivals from other Texas counties and new arrivals from outside the U.S.

No other county in the Houston metro area appeared in StorageCafé's ranking of the top 10 Texas counties for new arrivals from out of state. That hardly discounts the fact that the entire metro area is witnessing substantial population growth, though.

The Houston area added nearly 1.08 million residents between 2010 and 2018, growing at a rate of 18.2 percent, according to Census Bureau figures cited by the Greater Houston Partnership. From 2017 to 2018 alone, the region's population jumped by 91,689 — the third largest increase in the country — to just shy of 7 million.

To be clear, more than 1 million people didn't pack up and move to the Houston area from 2010 to 2018. Rather, the region's population growth rate comprises arrivals and births stacked up against departures and deaths.

Although the StorageCafé analysis indicates a Texas-leading population spike, Bill Fulton, director of Rice University's Kinder Institute for Urban Research, notes that Harris County has experienced an overall decline in population growth since 2015.

"This is not surprising given the drop in oil prices, which led to economic stagnation in Houston," Fulton tells CultureMap.

Fulton points out that Harris County's population gains don't match the combined growth of the Dallas-Fort Worth area's two biggest counties — Dallas and Tarrant. Dallas County has about 2.6 million residents, while Tarrant County (Fort Worth) has a little over 2 million. That's a total of about 4.6 million, compared with Harris County's nearly 4.7 million residents.

"Don't be deceived into thinking that because Harris County has a much greater population increase than any other county, that, therefore, metro Houston is growing a lot faster than DFW," Fulton says. "If you add the Dallas and Tarrant numbers together, it clearly shows that DFW is still attracting more [newcomers] than Houston."

"The bottom line is: For the past several years, DFW has been growing faster than Houston, and that growth has been driven by [more newcomers] from other states," Fulton adds.

Indeed, grabbing second place in the StorageCafé ranking was Dallas County, with 47,336 new out-of-state arrivals in 2017. And in the No. 3 spot, next-door Tarrant County picked up 44,181 new arrivals. That means Dallas and Tarrant counties drew more than 91,500 new out-of-state residents in 2017, beating the total for Harris County.

Two other DFW counties, Collin and Denton, ranked sixth and seventh, respectively, in StorageCafé's list of the top 10 Texas counties. Collin County saw 24,918 new out-of-state arrivals in 2017, with Denton County at 22,190.

All told, the four DFW counties in Texas' top 10 absorbed 138,625 new out-of-state residents in 2017. By comparison, 138,541 people lived in Denton in 2018, the Census Bureau says.

From 2010 to 2018, Dallas-Fort Worth added more residents — over 1.11 million, or a growth rate of 17.3 percent — than any other major metro area in the country, according to the Census Bureau. In terms of the sheer number of new residents, DFW eclipsed Houston during that period, but Houston held a slight edge for percentage growth.

Bexar County, which anchors the San Antonio metro area, claimed the No. 4 spot in the StorageCafé ranking, attracting 41,062 out-of-state newcomers in 2017.

Just behind it, at No. 5, was Travis County, which anchors the Austin metro area. The StorageCafé data shows 33,939 people relocated to Travis County from out of state in 2017. Rounding out the top 10 was Williamson County (suburban Austin), with 15,712 out-of-state newcomers.

Combined, Travis and Williamson counties gained close to 50,000 out-of-staters in 2017. By comparison, Pflugerville was home to 59,245 residents in 2018, according to the Census Bureau.

Others in the top 10 were El Paso County at No. 8 and Bell County (home of Killeen and Temple) at No. 9.

------

This article originally ran on CultureMap.

Ad Placement 300x100
Ad Placement 300x600

CultureMap Emails are Awesome

Property Showcase

Houston leads Texas with 7 new National Academy of Inventors senior members

top honor

The University of Houston is now home to seven new senior members of the National Academy of Inventors.

The distinction honors active faculty, scientists and administrators from NAI member institutions that have demonstrated innovation and produced technologies that have “brought, or aspire to bring, real impact on the welfare of society,” according to the NAI. The members have also succeeded in patents, licensing and commercialization, and educating and mentoring.

According to UH, its seven new members represent the largest group from any single Texas institution this year, bringing the university's total senior member count to 46.

UH faculty also represented three of Houston's four new senior members in 2025. Six Houstonians were also named to the NIA's class of fellows late last year.

“This recognition affirms what we see every day at the University of Houston—bold, collaborative innovation focused on improving lives," Ramanan Krishnamoorti, vice president of energy at UH, said in a news release. "Having seven faculty members named Senior Members reflects our momentum and a culture where discovery moves beyond the lab into solutions that strengthen communities and drive economic growth.”

UH’s new senior members include:

  • Haleh Ardebili, endowed professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and assistant vice president for Entrepreneurship and Startup Ecosystem. Ardebili develops flexible lithium batteries and holds four patents
  • Vemuri Balakotaiah, distinguished university chair and professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering. Balakotaiah holds is patents, with five pending, and develops mathematical models for the clean energy research.
  • Jakoah Brgoch, professor of chemistry. Brgoch develops next-generation inorganic materials and holds four patents.
  • Jose L. Contreras-Vidal, distinguished professor in electrical and computer engineering and director of UH’s NSF neurotechnology research center. Conreras-Vidal develops brain-machine interface technologies. He holds five patents, with two technologies advancing through clinical trials.
  • Preethi Gunaratne, professor in the department of biology and biochemistry and director of the UH Sequencing Core in UH’s College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. Gunaratne holds five patents in biology and energy technologies and has made significant large-scale genome discoveries.
  • Jae-Hyun Ryou, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. Ryou holds 13 patents and has develops innovative semiconductor materials and devices for flexible electronics.
  • Yingcai Zheng, professor in applied geophysics and director of the UH Rock Physics Lab. Zheng's work focuses on energy production, geothermal development and carbon management strategies. He holds two patents.

Other Texas institutions also had strong showings this year. Additional new Texas senior members from NAI institutions include:

Texas A&M University

  • Guillermo Aguilar
  • Stavros Kalafatis
  • Narendra Kumar
  • Heng Pan
  • Xingyong Song
  • Yubin Zhou

Texas State University

  • Bahram Asiabanpour
  • Martin Burtscher
  • Nihal Dharmasiri
  • Alexander Kornienko
  • Ted Lehr
  • Christopher Rhodes

The University of Texas at Arlington

  • Brian H. Dennis
  • Nicholas Gans
  • Frederick M. MacDonnell
  • Charles Philip Shelor
  • Liping Tang

The University of Texas at San Antonio

  • Robert De Lorenzo
  • Marc Feldman
  • Daohong Zhou

The University of Texas at El Paso

  • XiuJun Li
  • Yirong Lin
  • David Roberson

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center

  • Thomas John Abbruscato
  • Annette Louise Sobel
  • Sanjay K. Srivastava

Texas Tech University

  • Gerardo Games
  • Dy Dinh Le

Baylor University

  • David Jack

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

  • Upal Roy

This year's class is the largest since the NAI launched its senior member recognition program in 2018. The new senior members come from 82 NAI institutions ad hoe more than over 2,000 U.S. patents. Accoring to the NAI, it has 945 senior members who hold more than 11,000 U.S. patents today.

“This year’s senior member class is a truly impressive cohort. These innovators come from a variety of fields and disciplines, translating their technologies into tangible impact,” Paul R. Sanberg, president of NAI, added in a news release. “I commend them on their incredible pursuits and I’m honored to welcome them to the Academy.”

The Senior Member Induction Ceremony will honor the 2026 class at NAI’s Annual Conference June 1-4 in Los Angeles.

Texas takes the No. 1 spot on new energy resilience report

Ranking It

A new report by mineral group Texas Royalty Brokers ranks Texas as the No. 1 most energy-resilient state.

The study focused on four main sources of electricity in hydroelectric dams, natural gas plants, nuclear reactors and petroleum facilities. Each state was given an Energy Resilience Score based on size and diversity of its power infrastructure, energy production and affordability for residents.

Texas earned a score of 71.3 on the report, outpacing much of the rest of the country. Pennsylvania came in at No. 2 with a score of 55.8, followed by New York (49.1) and California (48.4).

According to the report, Texas produces 11.7 percent of the country’s total energy, made possible by the state’s 141,000-megawatt power infrastructure—the largest in America.

Other key stats in the report for Texas included:

  • Per-capita consumption: 165,300 kWh per year
  • Per-capita expenditures: $5,130 annually
  • Total summer capacity: 141,200 megawatts

Despite recent failures in the ERCOT grid, including the 2021 power grid failure during Winter Storm Uri and continued power outages with climate events like 2024’s Hurricane Beryl that left2.7 million without power, Texas still was able to land No. 1 on an energy resilience list. Texas has had the most weather-related power outages in the country in recent years, with 210 events from 2000 to 2023, according to an analysis by the nonprofit Climate Central. It's also the only state in the lower 48 with no major connections to neighboring states' power grids.

Still, the report argues that “(Texas’ infrastructure) is enough to provide energy to 140 million homes. In total, Texas operates 732 power facilities with over 3,000 generators spread across the state, so a single failure can’t knock out the entire grid here.”

The report acknowledges that a potential problem for Texas will be meeting the demands of AI data centers. Eric Winegar, managing partner at Texas Royalty Brokers, warns that these projects consume large amounts of energy and water.

According to another Texas Royalty Brokers report, Texas has 17 GPU cluster sites across the state, which is more than any other region in the United States. GPUs are specialized chips that run AI models and perform calculations.

"Energy resilience is especially important in the age of AI. The data centers that these technologies use are popping up across America, and they consume huge amounts of electricity. Some estimates even suggest that AI could account for 8% of total U.S. power consumption by 2030,” Winegar commented in the report. “We see that Texas is attracting most of these new facilities because it already has the infrastructure to support them. But we think the state needs to keep expanding capacity to meet growing demand."

---

This article originally appeared on EnergyCapitalHTX.com.

6+ can't-miss Houston business and innovation events in March

where to be

Editor's note: March brings the return of some of Houston’s signature innovation events, plus insightful talks and celebrations in honor of Women's History Month. Here’s what not to miss and how to register. Please note: this article may be updated to include additional event listings.

March 3-4 — Houston MedTech Rodeo

Head to Armadillo Palace for the annual Houston MedTech Rodeo. The casual, Texas-themed conference brings together 350 medtech professionals who come from over 10 countries and 15 states to highlight Houston's growing medtech ecosystem. The event will feature panel discussions, startup showcases, networking sessions—plus, armadillo races, mechanical bull riding and live country music.

The event begins March 3 at Armadillo Palace on Kirby Drive. Register here.

March 4 – Humans of Healthcare

Houston Methodist Center for Innovation will present its new quarterly speaker series, Humans of Healthcare. The series will feature a panel of experts who will share about their career paths and discuss the nuances of the health care industry. This month's session will focus on IT. The panel will be moderated by Houston Methodist's Director of Innovation Murat Uralkan.

The event is Wednesday, March 4, from 5-6 p.m. at the Ion. Register here.

March 5 — The Future of Women in STEM

Celebrate Women's History Month at SUPERGirls SHINE Foundation's The Future of Women in STEM event, presented in partnership with the Ion. The event will feature speakers and panelists, including Kalila Winters Hines, senior public affairs advisor for Holland & Knight; Dr. Natacha Chough, NASA Johnson Space Center Flight Surgeon; and Andrea Course, rocket scientist and founder of Course Investments.

The event is Thursday, March 5, from 8:30-10 a.m. at the Ion. Register here.

March 10-12 — World Hydrogen & Carbon Americas

S&P Global Energy brings together two leading events—Carbon Management Americas and World Hydrogen North America—to form a new must-attend event for those in the hydrogen and carbon industries. More than 800 senior leaders from across the energy value chain will attend this event featuring immersive roundtable discussions, hands-on training, real-world case studies and unparalleled networking opportunities.

This event begins March 10 at the Marriott Marquis Houston. Register here.

March 20 — Ideas to Impact Accelerator Graduation and Showcase

Join Impact Hub Houston as it celebrates its inaugural Ideas to Impact Accelerator cohort. The 16-week accelerator is designed to help early-stage entrepreneurs validate their business models, strengthen confidence and gain traction. Hear short pitches and network with founders and mentors.

The event is Friday, March 20, from noon-2 p.m. at the Ion. Register here.

March 23-27 — CERAWeek 2026

CERAWeek 2026 will focus on "Convergence and Competition: Energy, Technology and Geopolitics." The industry's foremost thought leaders will convene in Houston to cultivate relationships and exchange transformative ideas during the annual event. CERAWeek 2026 will explore breakthroughs, cross-industry connections and powerful partnerships that are accelerating the transformation of the global energy system. 2026 highlights include an appearance by tech magnate Bill Gates.

This event begins March 23. Register here.

March 24-25 — 2026 Energy Venture Day and Pitch Competition

The Energy Venture Day and Pitch Competition, co-hosted by the Rice Alliance, Ion, HETI and TEX-E, offers two days of exciting pitches from more than 40 global energy ventures that are transforming the industry. On Tuesday, March 24, you can attend a fast-paced pitch preview event at the Ion, followed by the official Pitch Competition at 1 pm on Wednesday, March 25, at the George R. Brown Convention Center.

March 30-April 4 — H-Town Roundup

Celebrate innovation, entrepreneurship and collaboration at Houston Exponential's sixth-annual H-Town Roundup. During the free event series, previously known as Houston Tech Rodeo, attendees can expect insightful talks, workshops and networking events at venues across the city.

This event begins Monday, March 30. Register here.

View All Listings