According to The New York Times, new data from the Census Bureau shows that Americans are moving at the lowest rate since the government began tracking domestic migration. Even the millennials are staying close to home. The news could spell trouble for hot real estate markets in the country that are dependent on people moving in to find work. The new data shows a reversal of a longstanding trend. In the 1950s, about one-fifth of the American population moved each year.
These days, rents in many larger cities have exploded, making it much harder for a young person seeking better opportunities to afford to move. And low-wage jobs, after adjusting for the local cost of living, pay about the same everywhere.
The result is a nation where people move far less than they used to: Just 9.8 percent of Americans moved in the year ending in March, according to the newly released data. That was the smallest share since the Census Bureau started tracking it in 1947, and the first time it had fallen below 10 percent, said William Frey, senior demographer at the Brookings Institution.
“I keep thinking, ‘This is the year we’ll see a bit of an uptick,’ and it just doesn’t happen,” Mr. Frey said. He noted that the share of Americans who move each year now is about half of what it was in the 1950s.
