More N.Y. residents are outbound
State ranks second only to N.J.; pandemic a major contributor
A little more than two-thirds of the moves involving New York households last year were outbound, a higher proportion than any other state except New Jersey, according to data released by United Van Lines on Monday.
For the last decade, New York has consistently experienced more out-of-state moves than other states, landing itself on a list of top 10 states experiencing the largest exoduses compiled by United Van Lines, a moving company that tracked over 80,000 interstate moves in 2020. The pandemic changed the reasons why people moved and
contributed to New York’s climb toward the top of the list.
What might be driving this ranking is that Long Island and New York City have experienced drastic movement out, said Eily Cummings, director of communications at United Van Lines.
The other main contributing factor is more familiar: baby boomers moving for retirement.
Fifty-eight percent of those moving out this year were age 55 and older, according to the United Van Lines data.
“If I know that I want to move when I retire, COVID -19 has accelerated that,” Cummings said. “Rather than I wait a couple years, I’m going to move this year because I can work remotely.”
Sixteen percent of New York’s outbound movers headed to Florida, according to the United Van Lines data.
Daniel Coombs, a broker at a real estate agency in Florida, also said he’s seen the number of people moving from New York and New Jersey to Florida increase this year.
“It has always been a factor for decades but it is definitely evident that the pandemic has caused more people to move now,” Coombs said.
California, Texas, North Carolina and Washington are other states New Yorkers are moving to, according to Cummings.
David Kramer moved to North Carolina three months ago, after having lived in the Capital Region his whole life.
Kramer and his wife made a plan to move a couple of years ago for warmer weather and a cheaper housing market.
“We almost doubled the size of our house and our mortgage payment only ended up going up about a hundred bucks a month from what we were paying in Schenectady,” Kramer said.
They picked North Carolina because it was close enough for them to come back to visit their families.
The most popular reason to move across state lines has been because of a new job. While that reason is still the most popular, it decreased as a factor last year during the pandemic, Cummings said.
Also, the number of people who moved to be closer to family has increased — sometimes to the benefit of New York, he said.
“We are seeing more people moving into the state to be closer to family than we have ever seen before,” Cummings said.
The Albany region has seen a different effect than the state: the number of outbound moves decreased by 6 percent since last year, according to United Van Lines data.
And Mark Castiglione, executive director of the Capital District Regional Planning Commission, said the region has seen a very slow growth since the 2010 census.