So many people are leaving the Bay Area, a U-Haul shortage is jacking up prices

A row of U-Haul trucks and trailers are parked in a storage lot. A row of U-Haul trucks and trailers are parked in a storage lot. Photo: NoDerog/Getty Images Photo: NoDerog/Getty Images Image 1 of / 27 Caption Close So many people are leaving the Bay Area, a U-Haul shortage is jacking up prices 1 / 27 Back to Gallery

Rent a moving truck from Las Vegas to San Jose and you'll pay about $100. In the opposite direction, the same truck will cost you 16 times that, or nearly $2,000.

What accounts for the difference? The simple laws of supply and demand, says economist Mark J. Perry. With so many people leaving the Bay Area, there are not enough rental trucks to go around. Perry, a University of Michigan professor, published his findings in a new study with public policy think tank American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

CBS News reported recently that operators of a San Jose U-Haul business have trouble getting their rental vans back "because so many are on a one-way ticket out of town." The revelation inspired Perry to compare the costs of U-Haul rentals for trucks leaving San Jose versus those heading into the city.

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Silicon Valley has arguably one of the highest costs of living in the nation. The cost of leaving isn't cheap, either. Perry tracked the costs of renting a 26-foot U-Haul truck to San Jose from six cities deemed destinations for those moving out of the Bay Area — Las Vegas, Phoenix, Portland, Ore., Nashville and Atlanta.

In every model, the price of renting a truck outbound from San Jose was at least double the amount of renting the same vehicle in the opposite direction. See the prices in the above gallery.

"To help balance truck inventories and take advantage of higher demand in some rental markets than others, it's natural that U-Haul would implement demand-based, dynamic pricing," Perry writes.

A study published by Redfin found the Bay Area continues to lead the country in outward migration. The top destination for Bay Area residents looking to leave is Sacramento, followed by Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland and San Diego.

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Michelle Robertson is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @mrobertsonsf.