A lakeside Arizona town is calling Californians

California before moving to Lake Havasu City full time in 2024.

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THE COVID-19 pandemic prompted a California migration boom to Lake Havasu City, and the Arizona town's popularity has endured.

(BRIAN VAN DER BRUG Los Angeles Times)

Now, she worries too many others are following her.

"I don't want to talk it up too much, cause we don’t want a bunch of people moving in from California," Whitehead said with a chuckle.

She and her boyfriend sold their home in the Tuolumne County foothills east of Stockton in 2024 after trying the snowbird lifestyle — splitting time between the Sierra and Arizona — the year before and loving it.

“The cost of living in California is just getting ridiculous, so we decided it was time to sell,” she said. Her fire insurance had doubled in the year before she left, and she found much lower property taxes across the Colorado River. She also preferred her new state's governor and politics.

Whitehead had dealt with some adjustments, mostly good: friendlier people and no more snow to hassle with.

“I mean, 115 in the summer is a little bit to adjust to,” Whitehead said, adding that her pool helps her endure the heat. She sometimes misses the ocean and the fall colors of her home state.

“I try to not even tell everybody that we're from California,” she said, “but most of the people that we run into here are from California.”