Along with birth rates, immigration rates figure hugely in why homebuilding prospects differ from state to state. And if you use as an indicator Atlas Van Lines' statistics on moves it handled in 2010, it's clear that the Southwest and Mid-Atlantic states were where the incoming growth was, while the Rust Belt saw a preponderance of outbound shipments. A notable exception was North Dakota, which has benefited from a boom in energy exploration. One encouraging note: States with the highest foreclosure rates, such as Nevada, Arizona, California, and Florida, still were roughly balanced despite their housing problems. In our map, the red states are where total traffic was more than 55% inbound, while states in white had more than 55% outbound business. Gray means the ratio of outgoing and incoming shipments was roughly 50-50.
