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While still dealing with its own affordability issues, the Central Valley remains a bright spot in California when it comes to affordability, evidenced by an increasing number of people moving here from coastal cities including Los Angeles and San Francisco.

At a real estate panel on Oct. 16 hosted by The Center for California Real Estate (CCRE), local leaders and real estate professionals said the trend has accelerated since the Covid-19 pandemic. A Los Angeles area Realtor said the trend is very real.

“The reason a lot of Angelenos and San Franciscans are making the move into Central California is really threefold,” said Brian Ades, a Los Angeles-based agent with Sotheby’s International Realty who also handles listings in the Valley. “The obvious being economics. But it’s also about open space and a sense of community that may not be as transient.”

Ades, who represents properties such as the 365-acre Blackhawk Lake estate in Coarsegold that recently sold on Sept. 29, said many people are searching for lifestyle changes.

The Coarsegold estate in Madera County features two lakes, waterfalls, equestrian trails and off-grid infrastructure. It drew inquiries across the country, including Texas and the Pacific Northwest.

“The potential buyers are predominantly people who really want to be in nature and away from the hustle and bustle of the city,” Ades said. “People from LA or Santa Barbara come up here, and they realize they can trade congestion for nature — without giving up too much comfort.”
Ades also commonly travels to Washington D.C.. where he “helps cultivate Central California.”

According to apartments.com, the average home price in Los Angeles is 142.9% higher than the average home price in Fresno. In San Francisco, the percentage increases to 148.4%.

“You’ve got folks from coastal areas that are finding it a very positive move to sell their one-story, 1,400 sq ft ranch house for $1m in San Jose and move to Fresno and buy a wonderfully large home for $400,000. That’s been fueled even more by working remotely through Covid but it was already beginning to happen,” Karla Martinez, a policy advocate with the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability told The Guardian in 2021, when the migration was at its peak.

Even today, as more people work for large companies in the Bay Area and Southern California, they are coming to Fresno for a more affordable lifestyle.

“Their money goes farther here, and they make more [at their jobs in larger cities]. And so they think, ‘Oh, we can come here and get a very nice home for a lot less, and many of them are allowed to still do work from home,” said Joanna Odabashian, the CEO of Keller-Williams.

During October’s real estate panel, Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer said Fresno’s growth over the past few years reflects the trend of migrating to Fresno.

“A lot of people have relocated to Fresno from the Bay Area and Los Angeles,” Dyer said. “The proximity, the lifestyle and the affordability — all of those things are important.”

Although he said it is positive that people are coming to Fresno, he noted that the increase in demand has tightened the housing market a bit.

The city has responded by expanding its affordable housing division and increasing production from fewer than 100 affordable units in 2020 to 800 this year, with 1,600 more in the pipeline.

Carol Ornelas, president and CEO of Stockton-based Visionary Home Builders of California, said new residents from higher-cost regions are also influencing demand across the Central Valley. She noted that in one new apartment complex, most applicants were from the Bay Area.

“They can’t find any housing over there, so they’re going to try to infiltrate what we built for our communities,” Ornelas said. “The majority of them were over income, so they didn’t qualify.”

Ornelas said the overall need for housing, from low-income to market-rate, is driving unprecedented construction.

“We need housing for everybody,” she said. “If we cannot get housing for the middle class, they’re always going to be rebellious about why they get it and we don’t.”

One specific group of people that Ades has noticed moving to the Central Valley is health care workers.

“The people that I have seen gravitate towards the Central Valley are the medical community,” Ades said. “Central California is probably one of the most impressive fields where there’s a great amount of growth. In my experience, I’ve seen medical professionals coming into Fresno because they’re being offered job opportunities in their facilities, and they are being given offers they can’t refuse to live in the Central Valley. That is a combination of not only the opportunity from the institution providing that offer, but it is the community of other medical professionals, families and school systems.”

Echoing Dyer’s commonly used sentiment, Ades said, “Central California is one of the best-kept hidden secrets in the state. People are discovering it — and they’re staying.”