Population growth in Southern California is slowing. Could that soon change?

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Southern California has a lot going for it: sunny skies, beaches, mountains, sports and entertainment. But for some, it's just not enough.

Recent U.S. Census Bureau data shows that Southern California population growth is starting to slow down, marking a departure from historic rapid growth.

"The cost of land, the cost of material, the cost of labor that add up to high home prices," said Kome Ajise, the executive director of the Southern California Association of Governments, which hosted its 35th annual demographics workshop in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday.

"We have a lot of four-year universities that graduate thousands and thousands of talented young people every single year, and we can't keep them here because they can't afford to live here given the fact that housing is really expensive in this region," Ajise said.

Ajise acknowledged there are also political reasons to leave the state. High crime and homelessness are two of the primary factors.

"People are going to make choices," Ajise said. "And this is one of the beauties of living in America is you have the right to decide for yourself based on your convictions.

"I would argue that people still stay (in Southern California) with those same issues; not that they agree, but because of what the region still has to offer."

Some have suggested that the trend of people leaving California could soon change, or at least the financial reasons to leave the state won't be as significant.

"In the last 10 years, median household incomes in our region have gone up 17%, and they've only gone up 11% for the rest of the country and that's inflation adjusted, so purchasing power has gotten stronger here," said Kevin Kane, the supervisor of SCAG's Demographics and Growth Vision Program.

Kane also said that while the number of young adults buying homes dropped steadily from 2005 to 2015, that number has actually risen slightly since then.

"Home prices have been accelerating more in the rest of the country than in Southern California since the pandemic... the Boises, the Austins and the Denvers of the country are catching up to our level of home price acceleration," Kane said.