Bay Area mass exodus of residents leading to a shortage of U-Haul trucks

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43 points·wwilson··6 comments

There can't be a significant net decrease in number of households unless housing is sitting empty. There could be a net decrease in population if the people arriving are younger than the people leaving, and don't have kids yet. But that doesn't seem a sign of decline.

Similarly, there could well be a shortage of U-Haul trucks if the people arriving are young ones with no more than a car full of possessions, and the people leaving are older ones who've accumulated lots of stuff. But that doesn't seem a sign of decline either.

There can be net decrease in population if housing gets less intensively used. If I used to share an apartment in San Jose with a roommate, but that roommate moves out to go to Austin and I decide I'd rather have the extra space to myself, then the local population has gone down.

And as I understand it, there's room for quite a bit of this to happen in the Bay Area. There are plenty of stories about really dramatic numbers of people cramming into two-bedroom apartments.

I had the same thought regarding age as it relates to truck rental. Which kind of makes this article either really really stupid or intentionally misleading.

The U-Haul place here in KS advertised free gas to CA.

Have a link? Would love a free road trip. Might even make a few bucks if I can catch a load of cargo that needs to head that way.

Peak clown car.

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