Denver ranks first in net migration of young adults (Colorado Springs: real estate, houses)

[jacobwilliam77]

Pretty good article...

Boomers no longer flock to Ariz., Fla. - USATODAY.com

"Colorado stands alone among Western states in continuing to attract retirees and young professionals. Largely because of relatively low unemployment rates, the Denver area ranked first in net migration of young adults from 2008 to 2010, up from No.12 in the mid-2000s, said Cindy DeGroen of the state's demography office."

[Mike from back east]

I'm sure that's the truth. We've a steady stream of people in this forum talking about moving here. Anecdotal proof is the low rate of vacancies in the Denver housing market.

I've been posting on the retiree aspect for years:
- climate here is not a scorcher like AZ, NV, nor humid and buggy like FL and the south; and more affordable than coastal areas, etc
- retirees don't need jobs, so there's no need to spend taxpayer money for "incentives" for firms (polluters?) to move here;
- since retirees don't work, they don't overload roads and transit at normal rush hour, no need to add highway lanes for rush hour
- retirees don't need schools as their kids are grown and gone; schools are the biggest piece of property taxes and other taxes.
- retirees bring "free" money; their pensions and investments are usually quite solid and amount to "found money" for local governments

[GoldenZephyr]

The other good piece is attracting young professionals. These are the people who tend to build a tax base and generate economic activity over the long run. As the pool of them grows, more desirable companies tend to locate where the talent pools are.

That is the problem in California, most of the outmigration is from young upper middle class professionals who are seeking a better life. This is one of the most desirable demographics to attract and people in CA say good riddance, tragic. I think CO has a bright future indeed.

[Z3N1TH 0N3]

I moved here in 2008 from Michigan. I believe it.

[buckeyenative01]

I'm trying to move there. The job market/economy can't be any worse than what we've got in Arizona right now.

[jazzlover]

Well, as usual, the Colorado pumpmonkeys take what is a list of pretty dismal statistics and infer something incorrect about Colorado from them. Metro Denver, not Colorado as a whole, according to the report, is seeing a substantial in-migration of young professionals. If one understands the economy in the Rocky Mountain region, it's easy to see why: The Front Range is one of the few areas in the whole western Great Plains/Rocky Mountain region that has much of ANY employment prospects for those people. What the stats don't show is that a large number of those migrating to the Denver metro area are actually people LEAVING other areas of the Rocky Mountain region to relocate to the Front Range. That has been a long-term trend for many years.

The whole "retirement to Colorado" trend is also not going to be sustainable, just as it has proved to be unsustainable in other areas of the Sunbelt. That in-migration was largely fueled by "equity locusts" able to sell property elsewhere and relocate to Colorado--that demographic is drying up, with the results of that just now starting to show. I suspect that, within a year or so, that dramatic demographic shift will be readily apparent, but it hadn't really begun to manifest itself in Colorado in 2010.

The wild card is just how brutal the US economy may become in the next couple of years. My opinion is that we will see a savage recession/depression develop within the next year, coupled with an unpreventable decline in federal spending--with military spending probably taking a savage hit. Since so much of the Front Range economy is over-dependent on federal spending (Colorado Springs being the poster child of a place way too reliant on the government pork-barrel), the Colorado economy is poised to suffer an economic calamity on a scale unseen since the Silver Panic of 1893. I've been predicting this for several years now and think the pieces are pretty much in place to make such a collapse inevitable. I find it instructive that, back around 2005-2006 in the middle of the real estate bubble, states like Arizona, Florida, California, and Nevada all claimed themselves "immune" from the national economic difficulties that loomed on the horizon then. It's quite obvious now that they were wrong about that. Some people are expressing the same delusional visions about Colorado being "immuned" from what is soon coming in the national economy. They are going to find themselves very wrong in that belief.

[Mike from back east]

Got any stats on that "in-state" migration stuff? Didn't think so.

The coming brutal economy? Been blowing that smoke for years.

[buckeyenative01]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

Well, as usual, the Colorado pumpmonkeys take what is a list of pretty dismal statistics and infer something incorrect about Colorado from them. Metro Denver, not Colorado as a whole, according to the report, is seeing a substantial in-migration of young professionals. If one understands the economy in the Rocky Mountain region, it's easy to see why: The Front Range is one of the few areas in the whole western Great Plains/Rocky Mountain region that has much of ANY employment prospects for those people. What the stats don't show is that a large number of those migrating to the Denver metro area are actually people LEAVING other areas of the Rocky Mountain region to relocate to the Front Range. That has been a long-term trend for many years.

The whole "retirement to Colorado" trend is also not going to be sustainable, just as it has proved to be unsustainable in other areas of the Sunbelt. That in-migration was largely fueled by "equity locusts" able to sell property elsewhere and relocate to Colorado--that demographic is drying up, with the results of that just now starting to show. I suspect that, within a year or so, that dramatic demographic shift will be readily apparent, but it hadn't really begun to manifest itself in Colorado in 2010.

The wild card is just how brutal the US economy may become in the next couple of years. My opinion is that we will see a savage recession/depression develop within the next year, coupled with an unpreventable decline in federal spending--with military spending probably taking a savage hit. Since so much of the Front Range economy is over-dependent on federal spending (Colorado Springs being the poster child of a place way too reliant on the government pork-barrel), the Colorado economy is poised to suffer an economic calamity on a scale unseen since the Silver Panic of 1893. I've been predicting this for several years now and think the pieces are pretty much in place to make such a collapse inevitable. I find it instructive that, back around 2005-2006 in the middle of the real estate bubble, states like Arizona, Florida, California, and Nevada all claimed themselves "immune" from the national economic difficulties that loomed on the horizon then. It's quite obvious now that they were wrong about that. Some people are expressing the same delusional visions about Colorado being "immuned" from what is soon coming in the national economy. They are going to find themselves very wrong in that belief.

Okay then, scratch Denver off the list...

[vegaspilgrim]

I also suspect that the majority of the young people moving to Denver are males, although I wish I could find actual data to verify that. Fine with me if you want to move here, just please bring a woman (or two) with you.

[Osito]

Originally Posted by jacobwilliam77

Pretty good article...

Boomers no longer flock to Ariz., Fla. - USATODAY.com

"Colorado stands alone among Western states in continuing to attract retirees and young professionals. Largely because of relatively low unemployment rates, the Denver area ranked first in net migration of young adults from 2008 to 2010, up from No.12 in the mid-2000s, said Cindy DeGroen of the state's demography office."

Denver also has a reasonable cost of living, a distinct four seasons, the mountains and a variety of jobs in different fields. I will say I'm surprised that it's up from 2000 though, it seemed like that was in the "boom years" so to speak when houses in my old neighborhood were going up like crazy.

I feel tempted to separate the smiley and the horse Mike, it looks harsh.