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There is definitely a trend. About half of my core group of friends from college who moved out of state, moved to either Portland or Seattle. Recently, a work friend moved to Seattle, and within a year, her two best friends moved up there, too.
On the other hand, a lot of people seem to be moving to Austin, as well. And we get a lot of out of staters moving here to New Mexico. It seems that everyone in the sunbelt wants to move to the PNW and everyone up north wants to move to the sunbelt. Buncha gypsies the lot of ya!
There is definitely a trend. About half of my core group of friends from college who moved out of state, moved to either Portland or Seattle. Recently, a work friend moved to Seattle, and within a year, her two best friends moved up there, too.
On the other hand, a lot of people seem to be moving to Austin, as well. And we get a lot of out of staters moving here to New Mexico. It seems that everyone in the sunbelt wants to move to the PNW and everyone up north wants to move to the sunbelt. Buncha gypsies the lot of ya!
A ton of my high school and college classmates moved as well, to the PNW or Austin. All of the hype right now for young people is to go to Portland, Seattle, or Austin. It's all about hipster culture as that is the big thing right now. People with families and jobs want to move to the Sunbelt. I had actually planned to move to Austin but my family threw such a fit about it I gave in and didn't do it, plus the friend I was going to go with ended up getting a girlfriend and moving to Tulsa instead. In hindsight it's best I didn't because job competition is extremely tough down there because so many young people are moving there.
In 50 years the majority of Americans will live in the South and NOTHING is going to change that.
Except the fact that year after year we keep breaking records for heat. This year is the hottest year on record, breaking last year's record and so on. Also could use a little more and a little better water down south.
Texas and Florida still lead the pack by a considerable margin, so would suffice to say there isn't a "new Sunbelt" transition occurring. Below are the Top 10 MSAs from 2010-2011. There are probably many smaller MSAs in Texas and Florida that fared quite well also by percent of population that didn't make the list which is based on pure number of transplants.
Metro Areas with Highest Net Population gains (July 2010 through July 2011)
1. Dallas-Fort Worth
2. Miami-Fort Lauderdale
3. Austin
4. Tampa-St Petersburg-Clearwater
5. Houston
6. Washington DC
7. Denver
8. San Antonio
9. Seattle
10. Riverside-San Bernandino CA
I don't think Seattle and Portland will grow too much more. Seattle has a high cost of living and the state is very regulatory. Seattle has traffic problems and limited land. It might be okay for high paying tech jobs, but I don't see it as supporting a large influx of the general population.
Portland has expansion laws around the Willamette Valley to prevent sprawl and development of surrounding farmland, so I'd guess that the development would be urban replanning and that usually costs a lot. I think the NW areas are kind of cost prohibitive. Southern states (Texas for example) are very business friendly compared to the NW, provide plenty of room for development and have a cost of living that would better fuel a city's growth.
I don't think Seattle and Portland will grow too much more. Seattle has a high cost of living and the state is very regulatory. Seattle has traffic problems and limited land. It might be okay for high paying tech jobs, but I don't see it as supporting a large influx of the general population.
Portland has expansion laws around the Willamette Valley to prevent sprawl and development of surrounding farmland, so I'd guess that the development would be urban replanning and that usually costs a lot. I think the NW areas are kind of cost prohibitive. Southern states (Texas for example) are very business friendly compared to the NW, provide plenty of room for development and have a cost of living that would better fuel a city's growth.
Ok but if Seattle and Portland have strong tech and medical job markets with high paying jobs wont those workers need services like food ,medical, entertainment and such. Thats what is fueling Seattles economy now companies like Amazon and Microsoft. Amazon is growing at a very fast rate building new buildings downtown Seattle every year. And Northeastern University , University Of Washington have built new university campuses downtown. University of Seattle is doubling its size also. With high tech and medical research in such demand it will continue to grow the economy of the northwest. Yes I can agree the Northwest wont sprawl like sun belt cities it will be urban growth in city. In Seattle metro when a factory closes down its redeveloped heres a example. Kent town center was built on an old chemical plant . The landing in Renton was built on old Boeing land in to a town center. By redeveloping properties in the Seattle metro there will be many years of growth. The other thing to look at is with high housing prices in the Seattle metro Many people chose to live in an urban enviroment . Wich fuels downtown growth downtown Seattle with 70,000 residents and still growing at a rapid pace makes a viberant downtown. Where most sun belt cities lack.
I don't think Seattle and Portland will grow too much more. Seattle has a high cost of living and the state is very regulatory. Seattle has traffic problems and limited land. It might be okay for high paying tech jobs, but I don't see it as supporting a large influx of the general population.
Portland has expansion laws around the Willamette Valley to prevent sprawl and development of surrounding farmland, so I'd guess that the development would be urban replanning and that usually costs a lot. I think the NW areas are kind of cost prohibitive. Southern states (Texas for example) are very business friendly compared to the NW, provide plenty of room for development and have a cost of living that would better fuel a city's growth.
Somebody expects Portland to grow like crazy. No new jobs but many, many housing units are being built in neighborhoods where smaller structures are being torn down to make way for them. I am talking about 50-80 small mostly studio apartments in each building. A few will have one and two bedroom apartments but not many as I understand it.
I don't know why these sardine cans are being built if the builders don't expect people to move into them but there are sure a lot of them going up.
. For the South to have a majority of the people, the South will have to contain 219.5 million people, or literally account for 105.5 million out of the 129 million people that the US is going to grow by.
So, where are all these people going to come from?
I don't think most people in Oregon really want rapid growth. They want more stability than that. The idea of Portland following the lead of Houston/DFW/Atlanta/Phoenix (or even Seattle, for that matter) is a nightmare for a lot of locals, rather than a desirable goal.
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