Whoops! State Economist Corrects Error, Says Californians Are No Longer Moving to the Oregon Coast at Higher Rates than Most Other New Arrivals

"Since 2013, the share of Californians moving to the coast is what you would expect, or lower,” Lehner said, “given the size of the population.”

Union Station, Portland. (Ian Sane)
By Elise Herron

Last week, a new study by state economist Josh Lehner asserted an interesting idea: when Californians move to Oregon, they're more likely than other migrants to move to the coast.

But on Thursday, Lehner said his study wasn't accurate. He corrected the data, saying Californians did disproportionately move to the coast, but that trend ended in 2012.

"Since 2013, the share of Californians moving to the coast is what you would expect, or lower," Lehner said, "given the size of the population."

Lehner clarified that Californians are still among the majority of people moving to Portland, while many people who move out of Portland go to Washington.

"Now, while a plurality of Californians move the Portland region," Lehner said, "they do not move there at a rate above what you would expect given that the Portland region is basically half of the state."

He added that most of the Californians moving to Portland do not come from the Bay Area, but from southern California.

"Regarding southern California," Lehner said, "more than one-third of these migrants come from L.A. and nearly one-quarter from San Diego."

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