If you're looking for California DMV moving out of state resources, chances are you're ready for a big move - and you're not alone. The population in California declined in 2020 for the first time since state officials have been keeping track, falling by more than 182,000 last year. In perspective, the decline is small by comparison to our state’s nearly 40 million residents — just 0.46%. In fact, when you look at the overall numbers, there's less of an "exodus" out of California, and a more prominent shift of residents moving inland from crowded and expensive coastal areas; from LA to the Inland Empire and the Bay Area to the Central Valley.According to state estimates, San Francisco’s population declined by 1.6% and LA's dropped by 1.3%, with people heading inland, especially with the rise in remote work. Since January 2020, the populations of Banning and San Jacinto in Riverside County all grew by more than 2%, as well as Merced, Manteca, and Tracy in Northern California.Regardless, if you are considering a move out of state to find more affordable housing or just a change of scenery, here’s what you need to know about the California DMV for your personal moving checklist of responsibilities.
California DMV - Moving Out of State
Report a change of address within 10 days of movingThe DMV has an online change of address form. if you’re bringing the car with you, make sure to mark the box labeled “check if registered outside of CA”. If you don’t check the box, you won’t properly receive your billing notice. If you want to keep your car registered in CA, you still need to report a change of address to the DMV within 10 days of the change, but you do NOT want to mark the box “check if registered outside of CA”.You may still receive a vehicle registration renewal noticeEven if you’ve moved and think you filled out the paperwork properly, you may still receive a vehicle registration renewal notice from the California DMV. If that happens, you will need to write the following on the back of the stub and mail it back for your record to be updated:
- Date the vehicle left California.
- Name of the new state where you now have it registered.
If you’ve sold your car and no longer own it, you must fill out a Notice of Transfer and Release of Liability (REG 138) form. A REG 138 must be submitted not only when the car is sold, but also if it was gifted or donated.
Relocation Assistance
In addition to our educational resources on moving out of state, we have our FirstTeam Relocation Department to help make your next move as seamless as possible. As an affiliate of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World®, we're not just local, we're global because we have affiliates and friends all over the world. No matter where you’re moving next, we can connect you with a top real estate agent in the local area to help you research in-demand cities, identify the best neighborhoods, and secure your next home.Given only to those companies that achieve the highest customer reviews, our Relocation Department was awarded the AIReS Gold Circle of Excellence Award in 2019, receiving the largest number of responses and the highest scores of all the brokers in the international network, serving more than 175 countries worldwide. If you're planning a big move out of state, don't do it alone. Let the experts in our Relocation Department do the work for you.