California suffered the steepest outflow of people via rental truck amongst all 50 states in 2020, with San Francisco the epicenter of the Bay Area’s pandemic exodus for Do it yourself movers, new information exhibits.
![Slide 1 of 2: California had the nation’s worst migration growth ranking last year, with the largest net loss of one-way U-Haul trucks crossing its border in 2020, the rental company reported Monday.](https://www.msn.com/en-us/finance/other/how-big-was-san-franciscos-pandemic-exodus-look-at-u-haul-traffic/"default":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB1ctnOU.img?h=416&w=799&m=6&q=60&u=t&o=f&l=f","size3column":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB1ctnOU.img?h=416&w=624&m=6&q=60&u=t&o=f&l=f","size2column":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB1ctnOU.img?h=416&w=624&m=6&q=60&u=t&o=f&l=f" "How big was San Francisco's pandemic exodus? Look at U-Haul traffic - Jonathan Weiss / TNS")
![Slide 2 of 2: California had the nation’s worst migration growth ranking last year, with the largest net loss of one-way U-Haul trucks crossing its border in 2020, the rental company reported Monday.](https://www.msn.com/en-us/finance/other/how-big-was-san-franciscos-pandemic-exodus-look-at-u-haul-traffic/"default":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB1ctgev.img?h=416&w=799&m=6&q=60&u=t&o=f&l=f","size3column":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB1ctgev.img?h=416&w=624&m=6&q=60&u=t&o=f&l=f","size2column":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB1ctgev.img?h=416&w=624&m=6&q=60&u=t&o=f&l=f" "How big was San Francisco's pandemic exodus? Look at U-Haul traffic - Deborah Svoboda / The Chronicle")

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California rated last in the nation for migration development past calendar year, with the most significant net reduction of one-way U-Haul vehicles crossing its border in 2020, the rental corporation noted Monday. Arrivals to California accounted for about 49.4% of full targeted traffic, down from 49.8% in 2019. California slid down a place to declare the No. 50 ranking from Illinois, which moved up to 49th from 2019.
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U-Haul utilised information from far more than 2 million transactions annually to examine migration traits, locating that additional folks left densely populated areas when the pandemic hit, specifically in the Bay Spot and New York Metropolis. In March, a lot more U-Haul vans departed all of the 30 most populated U.S. cities than arrived over the subsequent a few months.
In 2019, slightly more U-Haul vehicles arrived in San Francisco than left, but in 2020, departures made up a whopping 58% of all just one-way U-Haul visitors from March to June. Ratios were identical in Oakland and San Jose. And U-Haul claimed the figures very likely would have been worse if extra trucks experienced been accessible to hire.
Throughout the Bay Space, arrivals declined 31% yr-in excess of-calendar year from March to December, whilst departures fell by just 12%, generating the migration hole.
California has been close to or at the bottom of the U.S. migration rankings since U-Haul started releasing them in 2016. Victor Vanegas, space district vice president for U-Haul, stated in a statement that the high expense of dwelling in the Bay Region has driven a reasonably substantial quantity of departures, but the pandemic exacerbated the pattern.
“We unquestionably observed an raise in outflow migration out of the common Bay Region and Northern California space,” he stated. “But COVID undoubtedly drove that exponentially increased than typical.”
He reported the keep-at-dwelling buy in March halted a lot of moves, but points started out to pick up all over again later in the 12 months.
“As time progressed, we surely saw our transactions maximize, we certainly noticed migration developments out of the general Bay Space and Northern California enhance,” he explained.
In accordance to U-Haul, the prime places for its buyers leaving the Bay Location throughout the pandemic were the Sacramento/Roseville area, Stockton and San Diego. Outside of the Golden State’s borders, the most common locations ended up Reno, Las Vegas, Portland, Phoenix and Seattle.
As for the 10 most popular states for people leaving the Bay Spot, No. 1 was California (cities outside the house the area), followed by Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Texas, Utah, Idaho and New Mexico.
At the other finish of the condition rankings from California, Tennessee bumped Texas to consider the No. 1 spot for arrivals. Texas was the major growth point out from 2016 to 2018 but slipped to No. 2. Rounding out the prime five ended up Florida, Ohio and Arizona.
U-Haul claimed the migration traits really do not correlate instantly to population or financial progress, but instead provide as a gauge of how properly cities and states are attracting and retaining people.
Kellie Hwang is a San Francisco Chronicle personnel writer. Email: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KellieHwang