Real Estate 101: Americans Aren't Moving

I know that people are moving out of Florida by the droves since I am trying to sell a condo on the gold coast with no luck. In fact people are moving less than they have in previous years because people just can't sell their homes. Along with Florida another hard hit state is California.

We often say that the condo isn't selling because the people are age (the baby boomers) are putting off retiring and Florida just doesn't do to us what it did to our parents. In our circle people have moved to be closer to their grandchildren rather than farther away. The unemployment rate in Florida is 10.7%. That is huge!

Florida always boomed - that is until 2007 when more people left than came in. In fact almost 10,000 more people left than came in. Prior to that from 2001 to 2006 the gains were more than 200,000 people.

California also saw a decline in the number of people coming to the state. 1.3% of California residents moved in from out of state in 2008 versus 1.4%. That doesn't sound very significant but remember how large the state is. We have been leaving California for years now but because of immigration and babies being born the population kept growing. The .1% translates to more than 800,000 Americans leaving than moving to California. But because it is now so hard to sell a home we don't see that huge population decline. For better or worse people can't leave California!

Some of the hardest hit towns in California are Stockton and Fresno. Some cities like El Centro have an unemployment rate of 30.2%; 17.6% in Merced; and 17.2% in Yuba City.

You may ask then where people are going. It may sound surprising but they are going to Alaska, Wyoming, and the District of Columbia. I have never been to Alaska but I wouldn't want to live in D.C. though Wyoming would be a candidate if our kids followed.

D.C had 7.6% of its residents come in during 2008; Alaska had 6% more people; and 5.2% more people wanted to live in Wyoming

Texas is the real winner with its population growing by 140,000 in 2008. That may be because there are still jobs in Texas and homes are "affordable."

The least popular place to move has been Michigan because of the lack of jobs and housing. Their net loss was 109,000 people or 1.1%. York State lost even more people than Michigan coming in at 126,000 people; however because of the huge population of the state it is only a .7% drop like New Jersey.

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