Companies and residents continue to move from California to Texas, thanks, in part, to low taxes and business-friendly regulations.
Chevron recently joined a long list of companies, including Tesla, Charles Schwab, and Oracle, that have moved from the Golden State to the Lone Star State.
Gov. Greg Abbott welcomed Chevron in a post on X, stating, “WELCOME HOME Chevron! Texas is your true home. Drill baby drill. Chevron, in Snub to California, to Move its Headquarters to Houston.”
WELCOME HOME Chevron!
Texas is your true home.
Drill baby drill.
Chevron, in Snub to California, to Move Its Headquarters to Houston.https://t.co/KCMWoTKphY
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) August 2, 2024
Between 2018 and 2023, eight California Fortune 500 companies left the state. Seven of them moved to Texas. During that same time period, Texas was one of several states that received the most net gains in Fortune 500 companies, while California was among several states that suffered the greatest net losses.
The New York Post reports on the “Texafornia” trend as Californians flee to Texas in search of affordable living. Here’s the start of the story:
Jillian Lovato loved living in Orange County, CA, but she hated the area’s high home prices.
“My wife Jamie and I knew we wouldn’t be able to buy the home we wanted in California,” Jillian explains. “We felt like we would have been stuck renting our whole lives.”
So in 2021, they decided to move to a different state—and while many places were less expensive than California, the couple honed in on Texas because of Jamie’s job as a golf instructor, as “weather conditions would play a big role in her time working.”
After traveling around the state, they decided to move to Austin, TX, because “it felt the most like us.”
The couple has since bought their dream home there, where they and their dogs have access to woods and local creeks nearby—perks that wouldn’t have been available in their former California city.
“Life has been very different in a positive way,” Lovato says. “While there are many things we miss about California, moving to Austin has allowed us to fulfill that dream of owning a home together.”