Thought experiment regarding American population dispersion: Imagine you picked up all of the people who live in the United States, then allowed them to pick where you put them down, with no regard to where they lived before.
How many would choose to be set back down in the Northeast and Upper Midwest?
How many would choose the West Coast, and, particularly, Southern California?
Note: Sorry to BB and SS, whom I used this line on at breakfast this morning!