Report: Real cost of California's expenses

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- A relocation consultant is warning Los Angeles and much of California is losing business to lower-cost communities.

Boyd Co. Inc. of Princeton, N.J., in a study based on information from U.S. corporate executives, said big California cities are simply too expensive, the Los Angeles Daily News reported Thursday.

"The harsh reality is your state is suffering today not only from a corporate exodus but intellectual capacity (too). Some of your best and brightest college graduates cannot afford to live here; that's a huge problem," said John Boyd.

The Boyd study compared 18 California communities with 12 out-of-state locations and concluded San Francisco, with business costs of $12.1 million, was the most expensive place and Sioux Falls, S.D., at $9.4 million, the least expensive.

Some California civic leaders appeared unimpressed. Said Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.: "There's a reason for it being cheap. It's Sioux Falls."