Why are so many people from King County moving to California?

Seattle is trading its residents for Californians.

Approximately 14,700 people move to California, on average, from King County each year. But passing them on the way up are 15,400 people from California seeking shelter in King County, Seattle Times’ FYI guy Gen Balk reports.

It’s a difference of 700 people. Balk notes that King County’s trend of sending Northwest residents down south is on the rise.

“He has statistical analysis to prove that x-number of people are moving from King County to California, but he doesn’t know why. At this point it’s hard to gauge,” KIRO Radio’s Tom Tangney said.

“If it continues, in 1,000 years there will be no one here in King County we will all be living in California,” co-host John Curley quipped.

What may be at the root of California and King County exchanging nearly the same amount of residents is the shared tech industry between the two states, according to KIRO Radio’s Tom and Curley.

Related: How tech transplants are changing the real estate market

The “why” of the issue, had the two radio hosts baffled. But the fact that places like Los Angeles, the San Francisco bay area, and San Diego top the list of places Northwesterners move, may be a hint.

“Why would you move down there? Taxes are so high, they have a drought,” Curley said. “The number one reason people move are for jobs … or love.”

Or to retire, Tangney notes. It is not uncommon for people to fly south for retirement from the cold rains of the Northwest.

Tangney speculates that the most considerable reason has to do with the tech industry. It’s not news that a chief cause of Seattle’s current, massive growth is from tech companies importing talent. The difference between the two tech markets could be a reason people are trading states.

“We have thousands of people coming from around the country to Seattle for tech jobs,” Tangney said. “These folks are moving to the bay area, there are tech jobs down there.”

“There are startups down there,” Curley broke in. “You go down there to do a start-up where the cash is, in Silicon Valley where things are really churning.”

“You go down there where there’s six guys with an idea, and everybody gets in, then builds it up, and hope you can sell it and cash out,” he said.

But the nature of tech companies is different in the Northwest, according to Curley.

“Up here you get established,” he said. “You got Google, and Microsoft and Amazon; you got your big, established places up here.”