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Americans Are Moving Less Than Ever, and It's Bad For the Economy (qz.com)

Posted by msmash on from the closer-look dept.

An anonymous reader writes: The best job for someone is not always in the area where they live. Often times, the job that will pay them most, and make the best use of their skills means moving to another city, state or country. Though making the choice to move can be difficult emotionally, it is extremely good for economic growth. Productive people make productive economies. Unfortunately for the US economy, people don't move they like they used to. According to recently released data from the US Census, only 10.1% of adults moved homes from August 2017 to August 2018. This is the lowest rate of moving since the government began collected data in 1948. The census tracks moves within counties, within states, or across states, and no matter how you look at it, moving rates are way down from just 15 years ago. For example, from 2002 to 2003, 2.8% of Americans moved across state lines. From 2017 to 2018, it was just 1.5%.

21 of 346 comments (clear)

  1. Housing is unaffordable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you bought a house in 2014, and need to move, you'll be looking at housing that is 50% more expensive than it was then. That's a hard pill to swallow when CPI-adjusted wages have been going down over the same time.

    1. Re:Housing is unaffordable by Ichijo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes, and it's a good thing the home you are selling is also worth 50% more!

      --
      Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
    2. Re:Housing is unaffordable by bkmoore · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It costs a lot of money to both sell and buy. The break even point is only if the property that you buy costs less than the one you sold minus the transaction costs on both ends of the deal. In that situation you're throwing away x-dollars in equity that you would have had if you stayed put. Real Estate is not a liquid asset that you can simply push "Sell" on and get your money, despite what many Real Estate "professionals" will tell new buyers.

    3. Re:Housing is unaffordable by apoc.famine · · Score: 1, Insightful

      There is nothing wrong with the house prices in the vast majority of the US. Housing is generally affordable and readily available. No, not in the coastal cities, but you can't generalize based on those.

      I don't get why people feel trapped by family, friends, or circumstance to the extent that they are willing to live in places with shitty costs of living, essentially making no money. We live in a giant country with tons of interesting little cities and countless interesting jobs to do. You can live a very happy, prosperous life in a very large number of places in the US. No, you won't end up Unicorn-founder rich, but if that dream is keeping you in silicon valley, you're a dumbass to begin with.

      --
      Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
    4. Re:Housing is unaffordable by goose-incarnated · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes, and it's a good thing the home you are selling is also worth 50% more!

      Presumably you're moving from a place with fewer jobs to a place with more jobs, hence the house you are selling will have increased in value much less (or even decreased in value) than the corresponding house at your destination.

      --
      I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
    5. Re:Housing is unaffordable by rogoshen1 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      on the flip side.. stay with mom and dad while you get your career off the ground. save up your 20% and buy a house. If you need to move, rent it.

      Case in point, kid I work with is 24 lives with his mom and dad still, but is able to save 80/90% of his net income. That seems vastly better financially in the long run than running out on your own immediately.

    6. Re:Housing is unaffordable by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 3, Insightful

      MOVE the fuck out, struggle, live poor until you can make it, that's what the rest of us have done for modern history till now.

      This is the single dumbest thing I've read in a while. IF you get along with your parents, AND they are offering/allowing a sweet deal, it makes significant financial sense to live with them until preconditions are violated. You can put a lot of money away like this. A lot of people have done this through history, and in some other countries this is the norm. I think this became common in the US about 80 years ago many more urban jobs were opening while rural jobs were in massive decline. But things have changed, I see kids living with their parents being much more common for a while.

      And no, if you want to succeed and build salary and position, it is NOT going to be with the company you are at. Learn to job shop, keep your interview skills up....and be willing to MOVE to where the jobs are.

      20 years ago, when I graduated from the university, companies would pay for my move. It was just assumed. I happened to work in a local job for a while that, at the time was an amazing deal . A few years later something better came along that offset not only what I was saving on rent, but then some, in a good area. So I moved, and had quite a lot saved up in the interim.

      These days though, getting your future employer to cover your moving expenses is not obvious. Some simply will not, others require VP approval, and a few of the richest and most successful will cover a fraction, maybe enough to justify the cost.

      The thing to remember is, by the time you move, they may no longer need you. I have seen several people caught in the space of 6 weeks, move across country and then find they had no job afterall. It is a risk to be wary of. 3 years ago I'd have said take the risk. Right now the market is tapering off and I think we'll be hitting a recession in 6 months, it's about the last moment to make this move if you can do it quickly.

      I don't understand the sense of moral obligation we are placing on children to leave the nest. They will want to do so for personal reasons, but it isn't necessarily the smartest choice.

  2. Inability to take big risks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've moved over 30 times and lived in 9 countries now, but I still remember being 22 living in the middle of nowhere in the US and most people act like moving to another state is like the end of the world.

    Considering that America was founded by people who risked their entire future going to an unsettled country, it's a shame we've come to this now.

    1. Re:Inability to take big risks by fluffernutter · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Considering that America was founded by people who risked their entire future going to an unsettled country, it's a shame we've come to this now.

      Yes what a shame it is that we have progressed to stable lifestyles. I would feel more whole if I said goodbye to my family for months to go work in a gold mine.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    2. Re:Inability to take big risks by fluffernutter · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I doubt a person who moves 30 times has very many belongings that they are attached to.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    3. Re:Inability to take big risks by youngone · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I have only lived in three different countries. Every time I moved I learned something about myself and the world around me.
      It amazes me how timid and frightened of change many Americans seem to be.

    4. Re:Inability to take big risks by sdinfoserv · · Score: 1, Insightful

      You're confusing the terms "found" and "founded". America was "found' by discarded criminals and rejects, but it was "founded" by entrepreneurs and libertarians. Most of the founding fathers were Deists, not Puritans. Deists believe they have control over their own destiny.

  3. Maybe we're satisfied with where we are? by WoodstockJeff · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yes, a "better opportunity" may exist, but "good enough" also has its advantages.

  4. Well duh. by rlitman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Unemployment is low, and good local job opportunities are aplenty, so the costs of moving just don't merit the benefits. But this is a lagging, rather than leading indicator of the economy.

  5. Two things here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    First, not everything is about the economy. This seems like an actual win for quality of life in that people can stay close to their families and form communities

    Second, how has telecommuting been factored into this analysis. It could be that people are now able to mee fuller economic potentials in place

  6. "only" by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 4, Insightful

    , only 10.1% of adults moved homes from August 2017 to August 2018

    Only 10% of adults moved within one year???

    Is it only me to whom that sounds too high, not low?

  7. Re:Simple things missed? by fluffernutter · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It is well known that millennials make less than their parents and education costs more.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  8. Re:Moving? by cayenne8 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    If I left NYC, I'd likely leave the US. Most parts of the US are basically unlivable without having to own a car.

    Well, welcome to America my friend.

    That is the norm, and it seems to work well for the VAST majority of the country.

    But please, do stay in NYC. Please don't come elsewhere in the states and start voting to make them the hell holes I'd perceive living in NYC would be like, with onerous taxation, lots of regulation and pretty much voting to elect politicians that wipe their ass with the 2nd amendment and others.

    Please, if you like the live in NYC, stay there and keep voting that type of life up there.

    Please don't come to where we enjoy more freedoms and more open spaces and try to change it for the worse.

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  9. I don't think we have stable lifestyles by rsilvergun · · Score: 5, Insightful

    like I said in another thread, 60-80% of us live paycheck to paycheck (it's a wide margin because you can run the numbers either as "has money in the bank but not enough for anything major" or "dead broke").

    Moving is a sign of upward mobility. Literally. The fact that there is less of it is an indication that upward mobility is slowing down or stopping. There are plenty of other indicators for this too (stagnant wages, an increase in low paying jobs, outsourcing of higher paying jobs, etc, etc). This is one more nail in that coffin.

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  10. Millenials are killing the moving industry by T.E.D. · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you read TFA (which you won't do, so I did it for you), they largely put it down to millenials, who are moving significantly less (although still far more than the average over all ages) than young people of previous generations. OTW: This is yet another "Millenials are killing X" headline.

    Of course we've seen pretty much every one of those are really down to that generation being far poorer and more unemployed than similar generations were at that same point in their lives. There just aren't the opportunities there used to be for young people. This ain't their fault, and the headlines really should be blaming the people with power and resources in this society, not the victims.

  11. Re:Moving? by jeff4747 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That is the norm, and it seems to work well for the VAST majority of the country.

    No, it is tolerated by the VAST majority of the country.