Are Va Tech, UVA, JMU grads moving to NoVa like before? (Richmond: transplants, credit)

[Gilgamesh8]

Are grads from these schools choosing other cities these days? I've noticed a decline.

[ChristineVA]

Hard to tell. My son (JMU grad this May) will be coming back here for his job. He did get an offer in Richmond, which I personally feel he should have taken, but he wanted to come back to this area.

[The Dissenter]

Originally Posted by Gilgamesh8

Are grads from these schools choosing other cities these days? I've noticed a decline.

My household is full of transplants and I’m the sole one from Virginia and not of the three universities you mentioned. The other three are from FL, AL, and Non-DC area MD.

I think the high COL is making NoVA lose its luster for those with not super attractive degrees and who don’t have an in to the big companies like Northrop, Deloitte, etc. Myself, I’ll probably be out of here this time next year because there isn’t much holding me here that I can’t get in a cheaper COL aside from some personal issues that are drawing me to another particular area.

[NOVA_guy]

Antidotely speaking, they're definitely still moving here. A lot of people I went to HS with who went to JMU, UVA, CNU, VCU and Tech have all moved back here - some have gone to Richmond but majority of them are in NoVa.

That said, this area is slowly approaching NYC level of craziness as far as housing is concerned, that's really going to hurt the growth of the area as far as attracting millennials and young people.

[NOVA_guy]

Originally Posted by The Dissenter

My household is full of transplants and I’m the sole one from Virginia and not of the three universities you mentioned. The other three are from FL, AL, and Non-DC area MD.

I think the high COL is making NoVA lose its luster for those with not super attractive degrees and who don’t have an in to the big companies like Northrop, Deloitte, etc. Myself, I’ll probably be out of here this time next year because there isn’t much holding me here that I can’t get in a cheaper COL aside from some personal issues that are drawing me to another particular area.

I've been considering leaving as well.

The thing about this area is you get sucked into having a pretty nice salary - all the places I've looked at, even with a somewhat cheaper CoL, I'll be taking a significant pay cut but oh well.

[Hal Roach]

I would say the Dallas area is the top out of state location for JMU grads. San Diego is up there, but most leave after a few years.

[LynchburgLover]

Originally Posted by The Dissenter

My household is full of transplants and I’m the sole one from Virginia and not of the three universities you mentioned. The other three are from FL, AL, and Non-DC area MD.

I think the high COL is making NoVA lose its luster for those with not super attractive degrees and who don’t have an in to the big companies like Northrop, Deloitte, etc. Myself, I’ll probably be out of here this time next year because there isn’t much holding me here that I can’t get in a cheaper COL aside from some personal issues that are drawing me to another particular area.

Daughter and her husband say about 3 to 4 years they are leaving.

[NOVAmtneer82]

I work for a large consulting company that heavily recruits from those schools and it seems like the numbers coming in are still large but definitely down from a few years ago. In addition, there appears to be an uptick in people requesting transfers to offices in the Carolinas, Denver and Austin. I'm sure there are others but those seem to be the more popular locations. It really seems to mirror the more recent population trends for the area which have shown fairly strong growth but much slower than the boom years of 2008- 2012. During that time period, we were the only major metro area in the country with a growing economy and that was a huge factor in bringing people here. There are still lots of people coming into this area, but I think we are now starting to see larger numbers (at least compared to historical norms) of people take advantage of opportunities in areas with a lower COL- which these days happens to be just about anywhere else in the country outside of NYC, the SF Bay area, Southern California and maybe Boston. I've been here 13 years and while the cost of living has always been high, it seems to have really taken off over the last few years.

[Gilgamesh8]

Originally Posted by NOVAmtneer82

I work for a large consulting company that heavily recruits from those schools and it seems like the numbers coming in are still large but definitely down from a few years ago. In addition, there appears to be an uptick in people requesting transfers to offices in the Carolinas, Denver and Austin. I'm sure there are others but those seem to be the more popular locations. It really seems to mirror the more recent population trends for the area which have shown fairly strong growth but much slower than the boom years of 2008- 2012. During that time period, we were the only major metro area in the country with a growing economy and that was a huge factor in bringing people here. There are still lots of people coming into this area, but I think we are now starting to see larger numbers (at least compared to historical norms) of people take advantage of opportunities in areas with a lower COL- which these days happens to be just about anywhere else in the country outside of NYC, the SF Bay area, Southern California and maybe Boston. I've been here 13 years and while the cost of living has always been high, it seems to have really taken off over the last few years.

2008-2012 were definitely the boom years.

[tgbwc]

Originally Posted by NOVA_guy

I've been considering leaving as well.

The thing about this area is you get sucked into having a pretty nice salary - all the places I've looked at, even with a somewhat cheaper CoL, I'll be taking a significant pay cut but oh well.

After 25 years we are WAY too vested to leave at this point even though it is questionable whether salary keeps up with the COL. We considered moving to the Roanoke area about 15 years ago but the pay scales were (and still are) ridiculous. If we made the move today our HHi would drop at least ~90k, but probably quite a bit more since there is usually a limit to the amount of experience that would be credited.