Out Migration?

Looks like the high cost of housing in parts of California (and New York City, and the area I live in, the greater DC area) is finally starting to take its toll - there's starting to be net out-migration from California:

Last year, a half million people left California for other parts of the United States, while fewer than 400,000 Americans moved there. The net outflow has risen fivefold, to more than 100,000, since 2001, an analysis by Economy.com, a research company, shows, although immigration from other countries and births have kept the state's population growing.

That's an interesting change, and one that I suspect will start happening around my area as well. I have no idea how a young family could afford to live here (Columbia, MD) - house prices have skyrocketed, and pay scales haven't remotely kept up. My wife works with younger people just starting out, and they are buying townhouses further and further west - the commuting range from jobs in Northern VA and the greater DC area is just astonishing. I've met people commuting in from southern Pennsylvania, and from West Virginia. At some point, that kind of commute has got to be a killer.