About a month ago, I met the man who actually owns the house next door to me (it’s a rental - the man & his wife recently moved to Tucson; ironically, his brother is the new renter). I digress. The owner is a black man from CA, born & raised, & he has an Asian wife. Lovely couple (met her too). Anyways, he got tired of CA’s BS & moved here. For the price he got out out of his home in CA, he bought a mansion here + 4 other homes to use as rental income. He said CA turned him from being a Democrat into a staunch Conservative. He said he can’t understand why ANYONE still lives there.
I suspect that most people stay here simply because it is where they are employed. I also suspect that with newly discovered ease with which people can work from home that has come as a result of COVID that many of these people will now realize they are not stuck here just because it is where their employer is located