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This doesn't line up with the statistics. "God's Country" and small towns are exactly where 1/3 of the country was moving to during covid. Your podunk hometown is the exception, not the rule.
Not really. They were moving to Sedona or other picturesque towns, not places like Liberal, KS.
Domestic migration has been trending down for over a decade at this point. I see that only becoming more of a reality for the foreseeable future. WFH being more mainstream and compounded by housing shortage in both the buyer and renter market..really dampens the need/desire/ability for millions of people to move.
It’s been trending down for well over a century
I’d also argue that a warm winter is a much less strong reason to move than Jim Crow and lynch mobs. In addition since civil rights investment in the Sunbelt made big industries down there which means there is less reason to move “to the big city” cause like Coke, Bank of America, Bridgestone, Delta, Fed-Ex are all based in the South. Solid middle class jobs didn’t actually exist everywhere, even in the 1950s. Until ~2007 there was a convergence economically across the country that made it less and less worth it to move. It has reversed somewhat but it’s much more evenly distributed than it was in say 1967.
It doesn't fit. Lack of effort is an hilarious assumption to make amongst a population of hundreds of millions of people. This thread is a joke.
I guess people are supposed to move just for the heck of it?
Moving is all fun when you are young and don't have much stuff and the type of jobs you are going to get are pretty much the same. Everything is an adventure.
Not so much when you are older and you have a lot of stuff, appropriate job opportunities are more limited, having to sell a house and buy a new one. Have kids in school. It's a giant headache and half the time you regret moving after you do so.
In my personal orbit I felt the opposite, starting Covid and work from home.
I have quite a few friends moving, uprooted, did a 180, both internationally and domestically. A few of New Yorkers moved to either Miami or Dallas, not for financial reasons but more a part of rich New Yorker exodus affected by Covid and crimes. My friend in Marin County in SF has been trying to move away, they might end up moving to Charlottesville VA.-another migration due to the crimes, not because they are “priced out”. Quite a few friends became the expats in Europe: one of them sold their house in Venice Beach CA and just moved to Amsterdam. She said too many unreported crimes near the beach.
Working from home made many people, us included, who are otherwise set with stability in one city, move somewhere with ease and curiosity. Digital nomad is actually a thing now.
However I don’t think not relocating means lazy. Having stability, comfort level, emotional attachment, financial sensibility (moving can be very, very expensive.) social community, family ties, job obligation, career priority are essential and pragmatic.
I think a single person moving is easier than say having a partner or
spouse giving you static about it. Factoring in another person or people into
the equation can cause delays and headaches.
In 2021 American relocation numbers amounted to a wimpy 8.4% of all Americans, the lowest since the Census Bureau began tracking such information back in 1948. When did Americans become so lazy, and what has become of the pioneer spirit of striking out to the unknown for a chance at something better?
Does this actually need to be explained?
During the "pioneer spirit" age, there weren't fully developed 5 million population metro areas in the middle of the desert.
My feeling is, if you live pretty in much any metro area in this country, the motivation to move to a different one is severely diluted by a)the homogenization of all cities, b) inflation and poor economic conditions cancelling out any perceived economic benefit of relocation.
Living in a HCOL area myself, every time I wargame a relocation scenario in my head, it always ends up at "yeah not worth it, I"ll stay put and be happy with the little i have."
In the past it was push factors that caused people to move. My ancestor moved out of Switzerland because there literally was no farmland so they pooled some money and he was the one that signed up to vacate and decamp in Minnesota. Looking at these mining camps in the west, you have to wonder what those idiots were doing, it's brutal out there at 11,000 ft in a cabin you built by yourself. It's pull factors that now cause people to move.
People are keeping their social relations instead of uprooting a lot. That's the main reason people don't want to move, they want to keep relationships. Migration will probably uptick since economic arrangements have shifted but perpetual moving wouldn't be a good thing.
This doesn't line up with the statistics. "God's Country" and small towns are exactly where 1/3 of the country was moving to during covid. Your podunk hometown is the exception, not the rule.
You are more than welcome to it. If you really think that 1/3 of the country moved to small towns to escape Covid, I have a bridge for sale. The brain drain in small towns is crippling.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rnc2mbfl
Nobody wants to let go of their 2.5% mortgage and replace it with a 6.5% one.
I think that is a big factor in families noy moving. For singles the cost of renting is almost prohibitive in most cities.
Quote:
Originally Posted by eddie gein
Moving is all fun when you are young...
Not so much when you are older and you have a lot of stuff, appropriate job opportunities are more limited, having to sell a house and buy a new one. Have kids in school. It's a giant headache and half the time you regret moving after you do so.
It is okay if you are single but it doesn't take long to accumulate a few tons of stuff. I moved 1,000 miles ten years ago with a commercial mover, and it ran about $1.00 per pound. Luckily, I got rid of a bunch of stuff. It could be a lot higher now. All the other things you mention add up to the inertia and drudgery of having to pick up and move. People had a lot less a few decades ago.
Living in South Carolina with its small geographical size, its 5.5 million people, and its third place ranking for population growth, I haven’t noticed.
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