It's a lot about the schools, as was said. White people started fleeing the inner cities decades ago for the suburbs, and then the exurbs, partly because with so many unemployed the tax base for good schools just wasn't there in the cities. The commutes from the suburbs for work can sometimes be horrible though. Then, the local property taxes to support those good suburban schools and the good services are astronomical, so when retirement looms, and the nest is empty so the house is way too big, people sell and move elsewhere. It's also very hard for young couples to buy a home unless they have very high paying jobs or they get a lot of help from their parents, so some of the movement is to places where taxes are lower, and home prices are lower, often in the south and west.
Some of the people I know have moved full time to Florida. They're usually not very happy in my experience, although that may just be the people I know. The retired people who make it work usually have a smaller place out in the Hamptons or the North Fork for six months a year as well as a condo in Florida. Others retire to coastal South Carolina or some places in North Carolina. They don't seem to love it either. It's hard to get used to living in some of these places when you've lived here, but the expense and the winters get to some people.
That said, I think there are beautiful and great places to live in New Jersey; it gets a bad rap it doesn't deserve. It's just that as I said, those suburban towns are so expensive. The suburbs around Philly are also wonderful, and into upstate New York and Connecticut, but again, it costs an arm and a leg to live there.
Oh, I don't know many people who go to California. It's more expensive there than in the Northeast corridor, and it's quite different in terms of attitudes. The techies, in particular, have made whole parts of northern California impossible as a place to buy or rent. Austin seems to be up and coming. I personally could never bear the climate, but if you're younger and just building a career, you go where the jobs are...
