According to the California State Department of Finance for the 12 months ending July 1, 2008 more people are moving into San Diego than leaving for other counties and states for the first time in five years.
“That’s quite an accomplishment,” state demographer Linda Gage said. “The state certainly had a (sustained) level of out-migration last year. San Diego is more unusual in having that (domestic migration) turnaround.”
The state lost 135,173 residents to other states and nations in 2007-8, about the same as the year before. But because of a net increase of international migration and more births than deaths, the overall state population rose 435,905 to top the 38 million mark for the first time.
San Diego State University geography professor John Weeks said the shift in San Diego’s migration pattern could be an early sign of a bottoming out of San Diego’s housing slide and a signal that the economy might pick up here earlier than elsewhere.
“If times are good relative to other places, even if they are not as good as five years ago, then we’ll see some returned migration to San Diego,” he said, “and that will be indicative of better times here than elsewhere.”
