California has a lot going for it, but the Democrats running the place seem intent on driving everyone out. In recent years they’ve succeeded as more and more people leave for Texas or Florida. But every time you look, the situation in the golden state seems to be getting worse. Just a little over a week ago the SF Chronicle published a story about the sky high cost of living in the state.
California still has the highest cost of living in the U.S. And it’s not just because of housing.
The state’s prices in 2024 were about 11% higher than the national average, once again the highest cost gap in the nation, according to new data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis…
Housing remained a standout cost, with California’s estimated rent prices more than 53% higher than in the U.S. overall.
When you break this down by cities, you find that California has six of the ten most expensive metro areas in the US, with San Francisco at #1 and Los Angeles at #3. San Diego comes in at #6.
The high housing costs are great news for people who bought their homes 25 years ago before the prices tripled or quadrupled, but they create an almost impossible barrier for young people who want to start a life here. The young people are forced to leave for Arizona, Texas, Idaho and other states where they can potentially become home owners themselves.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The energy costs in California are also the highest in the country with the exception of Hawaii.
…another important expense stood out even more starkly: utilities, which were 60% more expensive in California, with only Hawaiians spending more.
California’s electricity rates have for decades been higher than those in the rest of the U.S., according to the Public Policy Institute of California. But utility costs have surged since 2019, when the state’s utility prices were roughly 32% higher than the national figure.
California’s high wildfire risk has largely driven the rise in its electricity rates, according to a 2025 analysis by the California Legislative Analyst’s Office, which conducts research for the state Legislature. For Pacific Gas & Electric Co. customers, the average bill soared from less than $170 to nearly $300 in 2024, data from the company shows. The Legislative Analyst’s Office’s analysis also pointed to the costs of mandatory wildfire and greenhouse gas mitigation programs as factors.
California’s home prices have actually come down a bit relative to the rest of the country but our energy prices continue to rise. And this week, the LA Times is reporting on a new cost that Californians are seeing rise: car insurance.
The top 10 insurers in California got the nod last year to raise premiums an average of 6% — on top of a 15.4% hike in 2024 and a 13% jump in 2023, according to S&P Capital IQ.
Add it all up and rates by insurers who write about 85% of all California auto insurance have climbed on average more than one-third from 2023 to 2025.
That means a California driver who paid the state’s average premium of $1,087 in 2022 could be paying hundreds more today…
And although rates are leveling off — with State Farm, the state’s largest insurer, recently filing for a decrease — industry analysts predict that the higher premiums for the most part are here to stay in California.
Leveling off at a third more than the already high prices 2-3 years ago is not great. I have first hand experience of this. And of course, California also has the highest gas prices in the continental U.S. and those prices are now rising because of the war with Iran. As of today the California average is up to $4.73 a gallon for regular gas. Premium gas is already over $5 a gallon. Gov. Newsom is of course blaming this on President Trump but a year ago, when Trump was only a few weeks into his 2nd term, gas in California was $4.77 a gallon, even higher than it is now.
Democrats are good at shifting the blame to someone else but ultimately the reason fewer and fewer people can afford to live here isn’t someone else’s fault, it’s their fault. The state spends too much money and regulates everything too tightly. It’s impossible to build anything in California and whatever success the state does have is being taxed into oblivion. The California wealth tax, assuming it gets on the ballot and passes, won’t create a boon of new money for state lawmakers. It will just temporarily plug the hole created by the overspending they’ve already put in place.
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