Housing crisis, pandemic reshaping Southern California population

Los Angeles County’s population has been declining for the past few years, but this most recent drop was the largest yet. “We’ve heard a lot about people leaving California because of affordability issues, so that’s part of it, but with the emergence of working from home, there’s a new angle to that process,” said Jan Brueckner, economics [Distinguished] Professor at UC Irvine who’s been researching the work-from-home phenomenon. “In particular, people can leave high-housing-cost areas and keep their jobs. They can move to Texas and work remotely in Los Angeles or San Francisco.”