Economic Perspective: Do Movers Still Like North Carolina?

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MARY WALDEN:

“Today’s program asks if movers still like North Carolina. Mike, in recent decades, thousands have moved to our state from other states. Indeed, these movers have been a major factor behind the state’s strong population growth. Are these trends continuing?”

MIKE WALDEN:

“They appear to be. We just got data for 2017. This is very early data, but we got the data for 2017 from United Van Lines. Obviously they track their movers. What this data shows is that North Carolina was the eighth most popular state for people to move to in 2017. We were exceeded only by the states: Vermont, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, South Dakota, Washington and our neighbor to the south South Carolina.”

“That’s very, very good news. Indeed, it does show that North Carolina is still popular. Now at the opposite end of the spectrum, a category that maybe you don’t want to be in, United Van Lines found that the top states for people moving away from were: Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Kansas. I think there’s a weather factor there, although not completely.”

“North Carolina’s advantage in attracting people continue to be, I think: climate, lower cost of living (we’re about five percent under the national average in cost of living) and job growth.”

“So if these trends continue, which many think they will, this is really what’s going to propel North Carolina’s population higher. I think closer to 14 million by mid-century.”