Americans Are Moving South, West Again
 

Americans Are Moving South, West Again

Americans are heading South and West again in search of jobs and more affordable housing, as the nation’s economic health continues to improve.

Census population estimates show that the 16 states and the District of Columbia that comprise the South saw an increase of almost 1.4 million people between 2014 and 2015. The 13 states in the West grew by about 866,000 people.

The gains represent the largest annual growth in population of the decade for both regions and signal that the multi-decade migration to the Sun Belt has resumed after being interrupted by the Great Recession of 2007-09 and the economic sluggishness and anxiety that followed.

View the rest of the article here: http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research...uth-west-again

I took a mini tour of some Orlando exurbs over the weekend and can confirm that development is back in full swing after a good post recession halt. No trees will be left standing.

Rapid population growth in suburbs, the best thing to happen in the worst way.

This doesn't surprise me honestly. America is always about private industry giving people what they want. The recession, harsh as it was, was not enough to reset consumer preferences because most people burned by the recession preferred to blame Wall Street fat cats instead of their own poor financial decisions to buy too much house for too much money too far away from jobs and services.

Ongoing gentrification in the big cities, however, will do the job. The wealthy are almost always the first to glom onto new trends and then set the desires for the rest of America. Housing preferences take decades to change, but other than that they're just like fancy cupcakes or froyo.

Desire for urbanity WILL percolate down to the average Joe. It already has, to some extent, but our cities are not prepared to handle this. Zoning codes do not allow for population growth in existing urban centers and do not allow for new urban centers to be created in suburban/rural areas. Transportation policy in much of the country still pushes roads over public transit, and real urbanity is geometrically impossible if everyone has to drive everywhere. Given these facts, it's no surprise that costs for urban living are skyrocketing and even people with an urban preference are forced to seek cheaper housing in sprawlsville.

I'd love to know who's moving to Arizona? The state's economy and wages have been stagnant since the recession and we can't seem to go a week without making the news for something ridiculous.

That said, Central Phoenix is the liveliest it's been since arguably the mid-20th century.

^^^^^

People from NJ move there. North Carolina seems to be very popular for my state along with Florida. Also Pennsylvania naturally.

I can get Pennsylvania, but Arizona is so radically different than the Northeast. People move there because its cheaper, but is cheaper really everything in life.

Sure a cheap house is fine and dandy, but lower wages and less of a powerhouse in economic activity is also bad. Texas is probably the best bet if one wants to move from the Northeast. Way cheaper, and wages are comparable, plus it has a strong economy. Florida is nice too, love the place, but unless your in certain industries, it can be a iffy choice.

My family moved here from Ohio for the dry climate, but that was 20 years ago. Our economy sucks.

Most of the transplants are either from California (Riverside and San Bernardino counties in particular) or the Upper Midwest (Illinois, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa).

Texas is much cheaper than the major cities in the northeast (NYC, Boston, DC, etc) but Texas is no longer really that "cheap" at least not in the 4 major cities unless you buy waaaay out in the suburbs...or the 'hood. The oil crisis will correct the property values somewhat but the days of really affordable housing in a big city are long gone. Austin has gotten very expensive.

The boom in suburban counties all over this land will hurt cities even more. We are progressing from singe family homes to apartments in the suburbs at a fast rate. And these apartments, although low rise in their nature, contain 100's of units. Units which could of gone to some urban core. A combination of preference for roads, the rise of complex's that contain 100's of units (in some cases 1000+), office and industrial parks, and you have a situation where people really don't have to set foot into a city. I mean, all the shopping is in the burbs, work, housing, parks, and so on.

Its a sad state of affairs for American urbanity. A lot of our cities are dumping grounds for extreme poverty, extreme wealth, and the middle lives outside of the cores. They do so because Americans like their segregation (they won't admit it, but we are a segregated culture), and a much better bang for the buck (suburbs).

It sucks, but its what our country has turned out to be. There's hope with the younger generation who prefers urban living, but the minute they have kids, the expenses start piling up, the single family lifestyle starts to become attractive. Often in some sterile town, with a nearby wal-mart. :(

I also think people like the suburbs because of our materialistic obsession. Suburbs often provide that excess lifestyle, and in cities, in a nice neighborhood, that will be crazy expensive. In the suburbs, luxury can be accessible much easier than in a popular and upcoming city.

There's quite a bit of planned communities in the area I was talking about. They're more new urbanism lite than anything else. Lots of walking trails, porches, community spaces. It has the trappings of small town urbansim without of course the urbanism. Not much retail to speak of, little to no jobs, enclosed monoculture. But people like it better than the old suburbs.

I'm seeing a lot of positives. More and more people want urban or at least urban-lite. Sprawl is reducing in many regions due to a desire for urbanity, growth controls, and/or at least the highways filling up. Many urban cores and central cities are filling in at high rates.

Some of that infill is happening in countless "suburban" nodes. Often it's crappy semi-urbanity with large parking ratios and wasted land, but much of it is truly urban. In some cases the "suburb" is really becoming part of the central city in everything but administration.

Are you referring to Lake Nona?

Americans Can't Wait to Get Out of These States:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-0...se-five-states

Californians? Close proximity to home, plenty of sunshine, cheaper housing for expanding families.

CA lost 77,000. The pop is still growing due to immigration and natural births, but many Californians continue to flee.

Metro Phoenix is projected to 7.8 million people by 2050 and Arizona 10.8 million. Looks like the growth machine is back at work in AZ.

Independence and those further west. But I've seen similar developments in other parts of the metro. Lake Nona is very similar from what I've seen, but they at least have the business park they're building around.

People from Illinois.

Well said.

We've made housing supply growth in our coastal core cities all but impossible, so it's no surprise people are moving to where it's still legal to build new housing units to any significant degree.

That seems about right. Midwest Great Lakes states.

People I have met (from the US) who have moved here in about the last year, 1 couple are from Illinois, 1 girl from Indiana, and 1 other couple from Michigan. Probably all in their mid-20s. Off the top of my head I can't think of anyone from elsewhere.

As for jobs, of the five, three are in education.

Well said. I agree with you on all counts.

That isn't the way it works at all. I've been involved with the largest urban parenting organization in Chicago for a little over 7 years and have seen how the "move to the suburbs" happens. Hundreds of times.

Very few urban families are dreaming about their eventual move to the burbs; those that do never moved to the city in the first place. The "single family lifestyle" is about making lemonade out of lemons. Frankly, there are a LOT fewer lemons than there were even 10 years ago, but it's fairly useless to discuss what's left on this board given that the overwhelming majority of users are childless and convinced that they know everything about parenthood because of how their own parents raised them in a crowded bungalow and they turned out fine.