Americans used to move more. In the 1950s, one out of every five Americans moved every year. But that number has been gradually ticking downward. By 2019, for the first time since the US Census began recording mobility data in 1948, less than one out of 10 Americans moved somewhere new. And last year that number dropped even lower: In 2021, just 8.4 percent of Americans reported living in a new place.
People move for a wide variety of reasons: A new job, better pay, cheaper rent, more sunshine, more opportunities in a city, a fresh start. Typically, older people are less likely to move than younger ones. The largest percentage of movers range from their late teens to their early 30s. But one economist who studies these things notes that the decline is “really widespread,” applying to every demographic, including “younger and older workers, renters and homeowners, more-educated and less-educated workers.” The pandemic has only added to the reluctance. In short, Americans these days are more likely to stay put.
This topic has been on my mind since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade and we’ve seen many state legislatures quickly enact abortion bans. Will more people leave Texas, for example, in response? Will less people move to the typically popular Texas? As a father of two daughters, states that used to seem like viable, even exciting places to live don’t seem so wise—or safe—anymore as destinations.
What about you? Where in America would you move? What places excite you or promise new opportunities? Or, in contrast, perhaps you want to share where you wouldn’t move to or feel the need to leave. Given my restless nature—I’ve lived in Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, DC, California and Arizona, not to mention some foreign locales—I’m always dreaming about where I might move to next.
I live in southern New England, a very blue state. Thankful for that! But I’ve been thinking, more and more, about living out the remainder of my years in Europe. Maybe France or Portugal (Switzerland is too expensive). France worries me, though (Le Pen) and the Portuguese language is daunting, but I don’t feel like I belong in America anymore. Sad.
Not leaving Texas until my children and I help TURN TEXAS BLUE!! Qanon/GOP and Josh Hawley actually have a plan to make life so difficult in Red states for Dems, that we move to Blue states. This would create a super majority of R states/electoral college votes, thus insuring no D president would ever be elected again.
I have an EU passport (Ireland) so that would be my first choice. Also considering Denmark, Iceland, anywhere but the US. I encourage people I know, esp. young people, to consider ways to leave the US. The only place I'd go in the US would be VT, preferably up near Canada.
I live in "middle" New England (not quite northern New England, but not quite southern New England either) and I fantasize about moving to perhaps Ireland, although at my age I'm not appreciate of winter anymore. But like some of your commenters, I really don't feel like I belong in the USA anymore, which is sad, but it's definitely not the country I grew up in. I used to say I'd love to live in San Diego (because of the climate mostly) but in the first place I don't know how anybody can afford to live there, and in the second place, it's still the USA. [shrug]
As a blue dot in deep red Bama, my wife and I need a blue infusion. We love Austin, but Texas is a non-starter, and the same applies to Asheville, although WNC does remain tempting in general. We have never lived in a blue state, so that will be our next move, probably VT or WA, but a year or two in Canada is also on the table. And the possibility of an apartment in Paris or a small rental house in Tuscany is hanging out there, but European politics are a fucking mess as well.
That's an interesting question. Moving is so expensive and I'd be personally reluctant to make a large move unless I'd already visited the place several times and was almost certain I would like it. Right now I'm close to retirement from my current job, my sister's kids are nearby, and my parents are getting older so I'm not interested in a move in the next few years. After that I'd still want to stay around the Great Lakes even with snowy winters because there aren't earthquakes, water is plentiful, and hurricanes peter out before they get this far inland. No place is free of disasters but we can try to pick and choose to avoid the worst for us.
Another problem is I have a house, it's small and old, but it's mine and I'd want to be able to buy a home wherever I moved and increasingly that is not all that possible.
For older people, the biggest factor they should consider (after basic costs) is the availability and cost of medical care. Most seniors can not afford to go to another state or country to access quality care - I’m not talking about reproductive services but medical care for heart attacks, strokes etc. You to have EMT service that is fast or you die.Are spouses really ready to live apart for a considerable period if one needs to spend time in a nursing home/ rehab hospital and have significant follow up care - leaving the other behind. Short term housing is very expensive as is renting cars etc.
Moving is much easier when you are young and healthy and when you do not have most of your friends living near you. We think about moving all the time because we live in a very expensive suburb outside Boston. We couldn’t afford to buy a smaller sized house in our community. We can’t decide what to now now that housing prices have soared all over. In a housing crunch, prices in our town do not decline much because there are few sales and many people who want to live here. Housing prices are extreme now, affordability sucks, so we hope that in a shakeout that some interesting potential buys come to market at much lower prices.
You know the other problem with leaving a home you’ve lived in for 35 years as I have, is that unless it is way too big, you finally reached the point where it’s been remodeled and upgraded enough that you won’t find anything as nice. Who wants to do a ton of remodeling at age 70, even if you could afford.
We have more options because of the amount of equity built up in the house, but it is sad to realize our daughter and husband may never be able to afford a house in the area they love living in.
In my youth I moved a lot, have backpack will travel, I spent summers going to old time music festivals, started out with a borrowed blanket in a horse stall, then a pup tent, then larger and larger tents, a Cox pop up camper, other camper variations, a small Roadtrek Rv. Rented rooms, rented houses, lived on a sailboat for 12 years, moved in with my girlfriend, now wife, we renovated her house, sold it and bought the present house on 1.75 acres surrounded by woods, I have a shop in the two car garage I have made a living with since 2005, fenced areas for the dogs, we've been basically quarantined since March 2018. The thought of moving everything gives me a headache and there's always some fly in the ointment - California has earthquakes and fires, Vermont or Minnesotta are too cold for me now though I used to like winter camping, other beautiful places like North Carolina are too red, won't even consider the South though or because I grew up in Richmond, VA, the Northwest is lovely if you like rain, others are too rural without food and hospital access.
Where we are now in Maryland is a sweet spot, storms usually slide past to the West or East missing us, it's a blue state. Guess we'll stay put.
Interesting, a reduction in movement is not my lived experience. Thanks to Covid, many people I know or have heard about moved to better areas for their families because they are now able to work remotely. I live an hour north of San Francisco and know several who fled the City. And I was a part of the 8.4% who moved between 2010 and 2020 - 3 times actually. Personally, I am pulling together my January 2025 plan. Not sure 'where' makes the most sense yet, but I can report that north of San Francisco, it gets pink and then red really quickly. I love the idea of Hawaii, but they don't like emigrants from the mainland, I hear. I want to be respectful, and stop acting like a colonialist white American.
In the wee hours of Nov. 9, 2016, we decided to move to Norway, my wife's home country. We joked that we'd be further from Trump, but closer to Putin. Aficionados of the Norwegian political thriller series Occupied, which has even greater resonance since Russia's Ukrainian invasion, will know what we mean. It took a while to finish up work and sell our house, but we've been here for a little over 3 years and haven't regretted it for a minute. The contrast between Norway's functional liberal democracy and American political dysfunction is stark. And while we weren't thinking of where we might be most protected during a global pandemic, being in Norway, with a Covid hospitalization and death rate about 1/12 of the U.S., was certainly a bonus. After feeling generally safe for 2+ years in our bubble here, we had to come to the U.S. to join the ranks of the infected.
I've decided to move back to Bozeman, Montana because I like the fishing better there than anywhere and I had a domestic split with a partner there and was booted out of the state against my will, so I'm ready to reclaim it along with hopefully acting work on the Taylor Sheridan shows filming in the state. I do housing via the senior subsidized rental program otherwise it would be homeless city with today's obscene prices. Gas price is still a major hurdle but it should keep coming down by the time I leave. We'll see.
For me, I always thought I'd have to move somewhere warmer as someone with severe osteoporosis. The ability to get out and move around is important to my health. But now, there is NO warm state in America I EVER want to live in. That's the way it is now. I'm in Illinois, a blue state. California is warmer in most spots, and it's blue, but expensive. Politics aside, and it's a big part of it, but It's now more about the climate change. The western part of the country is on fire, the south is under water. The plains are no better between severe storms and tornadoes. Not that Chicago isn't having it's fair share of severe storms, but it doesn't seem as bad as other places. I'm expecting Chicago to be the New Miami Beach if this climate change isn't curtailed.
Steven, you’ve been around but owe it to yourself to spend time in the mountain west and the Pacific Northwest. They are the most exciting places in America: Colorado, Montana, Washington and Oregon, etc. Great climate, four seasons, spectacular scenery and best of all, highly urbanized. I know it sounds strange, but mountain towns are some of the most walkable/bikeable places in the country. As for me, I live in Turkey, or Turkiye as they now wish to be known. When I return to the US, I’ll live out west!
Blaming it on the supreme court disregards the fact that these numbers come from 2019. I moved for a well-paying job from Las Vegas to Wisconsin in 2018. They gave me $6,000 to move. It cost me $12,000. When I got there, I spent thousands more setting up a second household, because my kids - at least for the summer - were still back in Vegas. So I was paying two rents. I didn't have a mortgage because I had lost my house in the 2008 recession, and I had been scraping back up as a single mother. By the fall, I realized I had walked into a highly problematic work environment where they didn't give me what they promised, and I pulled the plug. I got a great job and ended up $20,000 in debt. From what I can tell, there are very few good work environments. People don't want to leave one crappy job to move to another city to get another crappy job with few benefits or long-term promise. And it cost more to live than it did 20, 30 years ago. We are no longer paying $25 a month for one phone and a few extensions. Now we pay upwards of $250 a month for our family to have phones. A couple of decades ago, a teenager could buy a clunker car for $3,000. Now, used cars are under $10,000 are rare. Plus the insurance that has gone up. Plus gas prices. People are paying upwards of $1,000 a month for health insurance, with a $5,000 deductible. And housing... in 1980, the average home price in the U.S. was roughly $47,000. Now it's $460,000. The poverty rate for a family of three is $22,000 a year. Yet, according to the MIT cost of living calculator, for the two cities I lived in the last 10 years a family of three - with one earner - needs to make at last $65,000 per year. And I'm not sure that includes current housing costs, which have skyrocketed because housing corporations are buying up homes in too many cities and driving prices up. People can't afford to move. They can't afford to leave their social supports. If they do, it just cost too much to take the risk and set up a household. And, as you have noted many times, we are living in a world where everybody is anxious and afraid. We don't make moves when we're anxious and afraid. We make moves from confidence. We don't live in a world where we can trust each other enough to have confidence, so we stick with what we know. BTW, I still haven't paid off that debt from 2018.
Am from New Jersey originally but have lived in quite a few southern/western states. The high taxes keep me from returning to New Jersey and now am in NE Florida. If I had my “druthers” …would move to HAWAII.
I lived abroad for some years. 8 years in Mexico DF, 1 year in Amsterdam, and 3 years in Israel. I know that adjusting takes time for knowing the people (language and accents), transportation, and the climate. Wherever I am it’s up to me to change and adapt.
Now however it matters what the governing body is for the location. If so many places in the world are embracing authoritarian views, and if America continues that path - our entire world will fall to that way of life. Heaven help us.
My husband and I live in Georgia. Given that our daughter and her husband live in Vermont, and our son moved his family last month from Chicago to upstate New York, my husband and I are considering moving to New Hampshire, to be 2 hours from each child. NH is certainly more freedom-loving than GA, and has no current plans to encroach on the legality of abortion there.
For several decades, people moved when the company they worked for told them to. Now, more frequently they value lifestyle over company and quit rather than move.
If I could afford it, my next (and last) move would be to California to be near our younger son. There comes a time when being close to family is important.
I live in California and can't imagine moving elsewhere. Rarely a day goes by when I'm not relieved that I don't have to deal with the war on women that other states are waging. Also California is taking steps on gun control and climate. We have problems but they are bearable. And even though we are in a middle of a drought, we also have great weather.
America has a plethora of beautiful and peaceful places to live and when I was young I sought them out. Political and social turmoil surrounded me. It was the Vietnam years and the building of the great society and Watergate. But somehow the politics of the day had little influence on my choice of where to dwell. I choose Hawaii and have never regretted it. Yes it was remote and yes there were isolated instances of difficult social interactions, but, on the whole, there is no place in the US that I would rather live.I lived in Cuba, Rhode Island, California and New Mexico and visit those places on occasion, but I love that we are a solid blue state with mixing of cultures and people from around the world. I pity the poor souls who have found themselves locked into states like Florida and Texas because they found their roots there and now face the red root rot of divisiveness and political pandering corrupting their social fabric. I am not moving anywhere else.
I have lived in East Tennessee, the Twin Cities in Minnesota, On the Upper Main Line of Philadelphia PA, 4 different towns on the central coast of California, San Diego CA, Mesa, Queen Creek, Chandler, and Goodyear AZ. My last move was to a house that had a casita for moi in the same town. I have everything I need in there but enough space. I need to give away some things!
If I was to move I would move to Scotland. I love all of it. Except parking and roundabouts. There is no parking in the cities which is why the trains and buses are so nice and well ridden! I could go on but won’t.
The first half of my life was in the northeast. Having promised my aunt I'd help her relocate, I've lived the recent half in the South. Very weird to be in a place where people are being told what they can say, do, read. VERY WEIRD. At this point I'd live closer to family (NJ, MA, ND-doubtful).
I used to think how wonderful it would be to live in 'Cabot Cove', Maine where Angela Lansbury rode her bicycle down a path bordered by wild flowers. I have lived in PA, NY, NJ 4xs, NC, WA, WVA (9 years going on 100-sorry)& FL. My 2nd choice would be Bergen County, NJ. Loved it there-friends,close to NYC, the capital of the world, nice little towns that blend into each other,schools. honest people. My 1st choice would be State College, PA, home of Penn State, where I would feel 19 again. They built some homes on campus fringe for alumni, and residents can attend any class where there is room FREE.Had going to school been a job, it would have been mine.There is a 370 acre Arboretum, beautiful place, where you can volunteer to pick pumpkins at Halloween or help plant trees, an Arts Festival that just ended with all sorts of crafts,pictures, etc under small white tents that line a campus street and into the town, a creamery famous for its ice cream (Ben & Jerry got their start thru a $5 correspondence course there), and of course, the football, famous Nittany Lions. I often passed Joe Paterno when walking to class, and he always smiled and said hello. It's been the family school since 1930 & 1936 when my dad got his degrees. I was born nearby. It's home.
My retirement plan for the first 10 years is to move to a new location every year on anniversary. The trick is to rent and not accumulate stuff. (The more stuff we own, the more it owns us, right?) The destinations I dream about evolve, and it’s a mix of domestic and foreign, urban and rural, dry, wet, cold, hot. For practical and legal reasons, I will likely keep a small place in Florida.
Since childhood, I have lived in Michigan, Ohio, Australia, Ontario, Illinois, North Dakota, Boston, Northern Cal, Mississippi, Toronto, Alberta, Oregon, Idaho, Southern Cal. I liked and loved them all in different ways, except perhaps Mississippi, where I felt like an utter Yankee. Most adult years have been in the West, where I’m now likely to stay. Not exactly because it’s Blue, but because there is an openness that matches the wide landscape. Perhaps the reason Americans moved west to reinvent themselves.
I was raised in Massachusetts and now live in California and I will not move. I won’t even spend any tourist dollars in places like Florida or Texas. No way no how. Not a chance.
I live in Sacramento CA. It’s impossible to beat Northern California. But when I retire in 10 years, unless my finances have vastly improved by then, I’ll have to move. My first choice would be Canada (it’s in America!) but I can’t afford to emigrate there... looking at countries south of the US border including Costa Rica.
I live in Illinois. I think Pritzker has done a fantastic job of lessening our debt, and he has also fixed most of our pension issues. I cannot tell you all the great, progressive things he has passed/done for our state. He is helping us get a bigger bang for our buck!
I live in South C(r)ook County and my property taxes are pretty high, but I file a protest regularly, and that has helped bring them down a bit. Steven Beschloss knows my community well, as he went to high school with my brother at HFHS. Our community is active, LGBTQ friendly, well integrated, and just a real gem! I'm not going anywhere...going to stick around to make this community the best it can be!
For obvious moral and political reasons there are few states left I would move to or encourage my kids to go to. The East and West coast states are good. I've lived and worked in the deep south and Florida and West Virginia ! Decades ago I would have lived in the upper Midwest. Now I avoid there and the rest of the inner West. I've lived and worked in the deep south during college, and was shocked and sick. Now it's even worse. As a reporter I've covered civil rights, poverty and education on all over, so when friends would say the South had changed, I knew they were wrong. I was raised in Connecticut, schooled there, then in Massachsetts. Sorry. I've known lots of wonderful people all over the states, but these days the truth is out, and I'll live my last few years in the Northeast. I apologize to the the next generation for the mess mine has left the United States. Bill Doolittle
I was born & grew up in Jersey City, NJ; after the WTC truck bombing in Feb 1993 I left Wall St. In August of 2001, moved to Vermont from San Francisco. Woodbury is equidistant to the capital of Montpelier & the town of Hardwick.
I have been very active in town life: the board of civil authority, JP, library director, lister (tax assessor) & in local & general elections at the polls. Vermont is a blue state. I fell safe & "protected" by living in the 1st state to introduce & pass same-sex marriage without direction or pressure from the courts.
I lived in Denmark & Canada & have had many extended trips (4 wks+) to Europe (Italy, France, UK,) & Argentina.
But, approaching my 70s, where would I go in a world of increasingly frightening authoritarianism, nationalism & Christian nationalism? Northern coastal Maine appeals to me but climate change (I was a reinsurance analyst) is an imminent catastrophe & in tracking VT's climate projections compared to other states I find hope in the energy behind activists & legislators who are not willfully ignorant.
I will stay put. I love the loons & the lake & my garden.
Perhaps more people young & not so young will join us. Even if they dislike winters--- it's getting much warmer up here.
Fr ride down escalator thought about Canada. But, not sure retirees welcome. Have Sotch/Irish & German ancestors so Scotland or Ireland maybe. If in US, maybe VT, NM. Of course a State may not always stay 'blue' My dreams but prob stay in downstate IL - no not southern, rest state keeps us blue
This is damn depressing. The last time I began contemplating moving, in 1997, I was living in DC, and I could have moved just about anywhere, without being wealthy. I considered the Bay Area, Seattle, Salt Lake City, and Boston (where my parents were getting old).
I ended up outside of Boston, because of my parents--who began dying shortly after I arrived (my mother, then a year later, my father). Now, all of those places except SLC would probably be too expensive for me, but SLC is undergoing major water shortages, and dangerous pollution from the shrinking of the Great Salt Lake.
And the only one besides Boston where I might want to be now is Seattle, which retains the charm it had when I lived there as a young child, although it spooks me that Seattle, where I have never been anything except comfortably warm during the summer, had 108 degree temps last year.
Given the political trajectory of the US, I regret not having moved to Scandinavia as a young man, when learning the language(s) and making friends would have been a lot easier than now. Or perhaps moving to France, where I'd lived when I was 12, and speak the language.
I live in the blue state of New York - upstate. When Bush II was elected, I thought of moving to Canada. Again, when Trump was elected. Now I'm just too old to move anywhere. So I'll just finish out my years here in my safe (for now) blue state.
One more thing: I'm Jewish and have always had one eye on Israel's Law of Return. If I need to, I'll move there.
We have been planning a move to the Northeast. We live in New Orleans, the only city that is tolerable in Louisiana from the standpoint of our politics. The weather here is intolerable, however. I have longed to live in a blue state among people who share our views. The determining factor for us is climate change. Louisiana is not a state that has a great deal of promise in that regard.
First-time reader here: I was hoping for respectful dialogue, but see that there's a lot of the usual insults and cheap shots, layered with arrogance and superiority. Thanks, but no thanks. I left social media for this reason, and see that this thread is just more of the same, with some nice-sounding people and thoughtful comments sprinkled in. I had hoped for better, and thank those of you who responded to the question thoughtfully. First and last time visitor.
I just want to live in either a blue or purple state. Idaho has become unbearable the past few years. Too many conservatives are coming here for the red politics. I call them Right Wing Nut Jobs -RWNJs
I will now never live in Texas, Florida, or Utah and several other states are on the edge. I currently reside in Kentucky and am planning to move from here too as it is too red and conservative for me; I am ashamed of our senators and my representative and their policies.
Thankfully I'm in a blue state, NJ. And have all of the advantages of NYC 1 hour away. Especially MoMA. The Berkshires are only 3 hours away. Philly only 2 hours away. Thankfully I'm retired and don't have to worry about moving for a job. Each of the past few years and into next year I'm upgrading a room in my townhouse condo. My condo community is beautiful. I am not going anywhere. I'm happy and content with where I am.
Lived my childhood/youth in suburbs of Cleveland, OH - but then moved to the KS side of the Kansas City area where I've stayed all my adult life (I'm 60). My wife and I are blue dots in a red state, but there are redder nearby.... It's true - you put down roots, or plant seeds - whatever - and tend to stay where those are growing. One of the two daughters is nearby with grandkids. We're retired, but are involved with other things locally that we'd lose if we moved. If we weren't tied down here, then weather/climate would be a big consideration - it is hotter and drier here than it used to be - a cooler summer with a Great Lake nearby often sounds very appealing in the summer. Problem is, we aren't so much into the cold winters as we've aged either. And we're not ones to do an annual migration.
I’m from Jersey, moved to Florida then moved to Georgia….I’m sorry I moved to Georgia now but realistically it’s not beneficial to Mo e anymore…but if I were to move, I’d move back to Jersey…
Retired in Miami after a lifetime living and working in New York. Miami is a bubble in a red bath. Tolerable but just. Traffic rage and social disintegration are always nipping at your heals but the weather is decent with ocean breezes. Maine is my first choice of places to move to now. The weather holds us back. And then there’s Portugal. Or Costa Rica. Never thought I’d even consider leaving but yeah, it may be time. Effing Republicans.
I live in southern New England, a very blue state. Thankful for that! But I’ve been thinking, more and more, about living out the remainder of my years in Europe. Maybe France or Portugal (Switzerland is too expensive). France worries me, though (Le Pen) and the Portuguese language is daunting, but I don’t feel like I belong in America anymore. Sad.
Not leaving Texas until my children and I help TURN TEXAS BLUE!! Qanon/GOP and Josh Hawley actually have a plan to make life so difficult in Red states for Dems, that we move to Blue states. This would create a super majority of R states/electoral college votes, thus insuring no D president would ever be elected again.
I have an EU passport (Ireland) so that would be my first choice. Also considering Denmark, Iceland, anywhere but the US. I encourage people I know, esp. young people, to consider ways to leave the US. The only place I'd go in the US would be VT, preferably up near Canada.
I live in "middle" New England (not quite northern New England, but not quite southern New England either) and I fantasize about moving to perhaps Ireland, although at my age I'm not appreciate of winter anymore. But like some of your commenters, I really don't feel like I belong in the USA anymore, which is sad, but it's definitely not the country I grew up in. I used to say I'd love to live in San Diego (because of the climate mostly) but in the first place I don't know how anybody can afford to live there, and in the second place, it's still the USA. [shrug]
I'd like to leave the red state I'm in and go back home to Chicago.
As a blue dot in deep red Bama, my wife and I need a blue infusion. We love Austin, but Texas is a non-starter, and the same applies to Asheville, although WNC does remain tempting in general. We have never lived in a blue state, so that will be our next move, probably VT or WA, but a year or two in Canada is also on the table. And the possibility of an apartment in Paris or a small rental house in Tuscany is hanging out there, but European politics are a fucking mess as well.
Thank you all for such an engaged discussion.
That's an interesting question. Moving is so expensive and I'd be personally reluctant to make a large move unless I'd already visited the place several times and was almost certain I would like it. Right now I'm close to retirement from my current job, my sister's kids are nearby, and my parents are getting older so I'm not interested in a move in the next few years. After that I'd still want to stay around the Great Lakes even with snowy winters because there aren't earthquakes, water is plentiful, and hurricanes peter out before they get this far inland. No place is free of disasters but we can try to pick and choose to avoid the worst for us.
Another problem is I have a house, it's small and old, but it's mine and I'd want to be able to buy a home wherever I moved and increasingly that is not all that possible.
For older people, the biggest factor they should consider (after basic costs) is the availability and cost of medical care. Most seniors can not afford to go to another state or country to access quality care - I’m not talking about reproductive services but medical care for heart attacks, strokes etc. You to have EMT service that is fast or you die.Are spouses really ready to live apart for a considerable period if one needs to spend time in a nursing home/ rehab hospital and have significant follow up care - leaving the other behind. Short term housing is very expensive as is renting cars etc.
Moving is much easier when you are young and healthy and when you do not have most of your friends living near you. We think about moving all the time because we live in a very expensive suburb outside Boston. We couldn’t afford to buy a smaller sized house in our community. We can’t decide what to now now that housing prices have soared all over. In a housing crunch, prices in our town do not decline much because there are few sales and many people who want to live here. Housing prices are extreme now, affordability sucks, so we hope that in a shakeout that some interesting potential buys come to market at much lower prices.
You know the other problem with leaving a home you’ve lived in for 35 years as I have, is that unless it is way too big, you finally reached the point where it’s been remodeled and upgraded enough that you won’t find anything as nice. Who wants to do a ton of remodeling at age 70, even if you could afford.
We have more options because of the amount of equity built up in the house, but it is sad to realize our daughter and husband may never be able to afford a house in the area they love living in.
Thinking about Portugal or Uruguay. If things get worse in this country with white supremacy, racism and anti-senitism, I will not feel safe here.
In my youth I moved a lot, have backpack will travel, I spent summers going to old time music festivals, started out with a borrowed blanket in a horse stall, then a pup tent, then larger and larger tents, a Cox pop up camper, other camper variations, a small Roadtrek Rv. Rented rooms, rented houses, lived on a sailboat for 12 years, moved in with my girlfriend, now wife, we renovated her house, sold it and bought the present house on 1.75 acres surrounded by woods, I have a shop in the two car garage I have made a living with since 2005, fenced areas for the dogs, we've been basically quarantined since March 2018. The thought of moving everything gives me a headache and there's always some fly in the ointment - California has earthquakes and fires, Vermont or Minnesotta are too cold for me now though I used to like winter camping, other beautiful places like North Carolina are too red, won't even consider the South though or because I grew up in Richmond, VA, the Northwest is lovely if you like rain, others are too rural without food and hospital access.
Where we are now in Maryland is a sweet spot, storms usually slide past to the West or East missing us, it's a blue state. Guess we'll stay put.
Interesting, a reduction in movement is not my lived experience. Thanks to Covid, many people I know or have heard about moved to better areas for their families because they are now able to work remotely. I live an hour north of San Francisco and know several who fled the City. And I was a part of the 8.4% who moved between 2010 and 2020 - 3 times actually. Personally, I am pulling together my January 2025 plan. Not sure 'where' makes the most sense yet, but I can report that north of San Francisco, it gets pink and then red really quickly. I love the idea of Hawaii, but they don't like emigrants from the mainland, I hear. I want to be respectful, and stop acting like a colonialist white American.
In the wee hours of Nov. 9, 2016, we decided to move to Norway, my wife's home country. We joked that we'd be further from Trump, but closer to Putin. Aficionados of the Norwegian political thriller series Occupied, which has even greater resonance since Russia's Ukrainian invasion, will know what we mean. It took a while to finish up work and sell our house, but we've been here for a little over 3 years and haven't regretted it for a minute. The contrast between Norway's functional liberal democracy and American political dysfunction is stark. And while we weren't thinking of where we might be most protected during a global pandemic, being in Norway, with a Covid hospitalization and death rate about 1/12 of the U.S., was certainly a bonus. After feeling generally safe for 2+ years in our bubble here, we had to come to the U.S. to join the ranks of the infected.
I've decided to move back to Bozeman, Montana because I like the fishing better there than anywhere and I had a domestic split with a partner there and was booted out of the state against my will, so I'm ready to reclaim it along with hopefully acting work on the Taylor Sheridan shows filming in the state. I do housing via the senior subsidized rental program otherwise it would be homeless city with today's obscene prices. Gas price is still a major hurdle but it should keep coming down by the time I leave. We'll see.
For me, I always thought I'd have to move somewhere warmer as someone with severe osteoporosis. The ability to get out and move around is important to my health. But now, there is NO warm state in America I EVER want to live in. That's the way it is now. I'm in Illinois, a blue state. California is warmer in most spots, and it's blue, but expensive. Politics aside, and it's a big part of it, but It's now more about the climate change. The western part of the country is on fire, the south is under water. The plains are no better between severe storms and tornadoes. Not that Chicago isn't having it's fair share of severe storms, but it doesn't seem as bad as other places. I'm expecting Chicago to be the New Miami Beach if this climate change isn't curtailed.
Steven, you’ve been around but owe it to yourself to spend time in the mountain west and the Pacific Northwest. They are the most exciting places in America: Colorado, Montana, Washington and Oregon, etc. Great climate, four seasons, spectacular scenery and best of all, highly urbanized. I know it sounds strange, but mountain towns are some of the most walkable/bikeable places in the country. As for me, I live in Turkey, or Turkiye as they now wish to be known. When I return to the US, I’ll live out west!
Blaming it on the supreme court disregards the fact that these numbers come from 2019. I moved for a well-paying job from Las Vegas to Wisconsin in 2018. They gave me $6,000 to move. It cost me $12,000. When I got there, I spent thousands more setting up a second household, because my kids - at least for the summer - were still back in Vegas. So I was paying two rents. I didn't have a mortgage because I had lost my house in the 2008 recession, and I had been scraping back up as a single mother. By the fall, I realized I had walked into a highly problematic work environment where they didn't give me what they promised, and I pulled the plug. I got a great job and ended up $20,000 in debt. From what I can tell, there are very few good work environments. People don't want to leave one crappy job to move to another city to get another crappy job with few benefits or long-term promise. And it cost more to live than it did 20, 30 years ago. We are no longer paying $25 a month for one phone and a few extensions. Now we pay upwards of $250 a month for our family to have phones. A couple of decades ago, a teenager could buy a clunker car for $3,000. Now, used cars are under $10,000 are rare. Plus the insurance that has gone up. Plus gas prices. People are paying upwards of $1,000 a month for health insurance, with a $5,000 deductible. And housing... in 1980, the average home price in the U.S. was roughly $47,000. Now it's $460,000. The poverty rate for a family of three is $22,000 a year. Yet, according to the MIT cost of living calculator, for the two cities I lived in the last 10 years a family of three - with one earner - needs to make at last $65,000 per year. And I'm not sure that includes current housing costs, which have skyrocketed because housing corporations are buying up homes in too many cities and driving prices up. People can't afford to move. They can't afford to leave their social supports. If they do, it just cost too much to take the risk and set up a household. And, as you have noted many times, we are living in a world where everybody is anxious and afraid. We don't make moves when we're anxious and afraid. We make moves from confidence. We don't live in a world where we can trust each other enough to have confidence, so we stick with what we know. BTW, I still haven't paid off that debt from 2018.
Am from New Jersey originally but have lived in quite a few southern/western states. The high taxes keep me from returning to New Jersey and now am in NE Florida. If I had my “druthers” …would move to HAWAII.
Im 32- I’ve lived in Utah, New York, Oregon, China and Singapore. Currently staying put in Portland, Oregon.
Places I dream about moving are DC, Florida (Miami), Illinois (Chicago), and Puerto Rico.
I lived abroad for some years. 8 years in Mexico DF, 1 year in Amsterdam, and 3 years in Israel. I know that adjusting takes time for knowing the people (language and accents), transportation, and the climate. Wherever I am it’s up to me to change and adapt.
Now however it matters what the governing body is for the location. If so many places in the world are embracing authoritarian views, and if America continues that path - our entire world will fall to that way of life. Heaven help us.
My husband and I live in Georgia. Given that our daughter and her husband live in Vermont, and our son moved his family last month from Chicago to upstate New York, my husband and I are considering moving to New Hampshire, to be 2 hours from each child. NH is certainly more freedom-loving than GA, and has no current plans to encroach on the legality of abortion there.
Happy living in Maryland. Blue state generally. Not extreme. Supports abortion rights, gun control, climate control, common sense legislation.
For several decades, people moved when the company they worked for told them to. Now, more frequently they value lifestyle over company and quit rather than move.
If I could afford it, my next (and last) move would be to California to be near our younger son. There comes a time when being close to family is important.
I live in California and can't imagine moving elsewhere. Rarely a day goes by when I'm not relieved that I don't have to deal with the war on women that other states are waging. Also California is taking steps on gun control and climate. We have problems but they are bearable. And even though we are in a middle of a drought, we also have great weather.
America has a plethora of beautiful and peaceful places to live and when I was young I sought them out. Political and social turmoil surrounded me. It was the Vietnam years and the building of the great society and Watergate. But somehow the politics of the day had little influence on my choice of where to dwell. I choose Hawaii and have never regretted it. Yes it was remote and yes there were isolated instances of difficult social interactions, but, on the whole, there is no place in the US that I would rather live.I lived in Cuba, Rhode Island, California and New Mexico and visit those places on occasion, but I love that we are a solid blue state with mixing of cultures and people from around the world. I pity the poor souls who have found themselves locked into states like Florida and Texas because they found their roots there and now face the red root rot of divisiveness and political pandering corrupting their social fabric. I am not moving anywhere else.
I have lived in East Tennessee, the Twin Cities in Minnesota, On the Upper Main Line of Philadelphia PA, 4 different towns on the central coast of California, San Diego CA, Mesa, Queen Creek, Chandler, and Goodyear AZ. My last move was to a house that had a casita for moi in the same town. I have everything I need in there but enough space. I need to give away some things!
If I was to move I would move to Scotland. I love all of it. Except parking and roundabouts. There is no parking in the cities which is why the trains and buses are so nice and well ridden! I could go on but won’t.
The first half of my life was in the northeast. Having promised my aunt I'd help her relocate, I've lived the recent half in the South. Very weird to be in a place where people are being told what they can say, do, read. VERY WEIRD. At this point I'd live closer to family (NJ, MA, ND-doubtful).
Love California and staying here. Washington St or HI would be 2nd picks
I used to think how wonderful it would be to live in 'Cabot Cove', Maine where Angela Lansbury rode her bicycle down a path bordered by wild flowers. I have lived in PA, NY, NJ 4xs, NC, WA, WVA (9 years going on 100-sorry)& FL. My 2nd choice would be Bergen County, NJ. Loved it there-friends,close to NYC, the capital of the world, nice little towns that blend into each other,schools. honest people. My 1st choice would be State College, PA, home of Penn State, where I would feel 19 again. They built some homes on campus fringe for alumni, and residents can attend any class where there is room FREE.Had going to school been a job, it would have been mine.There is a 370 acre Arboretum, beautiful place, where you can volunteer to pick pumpkins at Halloween or help plant trees, an Arts Festival that just ended with all sorts of crafts,pictures, etc under small white tents that line a campus street and into the town, a creamery famous for its ice cream (Ben & Jerry got their start thru a $5 correspondence course there), and of course, the football, famous Nittany Lions. I often passed Joe Paterno when walking to class, and he always smiled and said hello. It's been the family school since 1930 & 1936 when my dad got his degrees. I was born nearby. It's home.
My retirement plan for the first 10 years is to move to a new location every year on anniversary. The trick is to rent and not accumulate stuff. (The more stuff we own, the more it owns us, right?) The destinations I dream about evolve, and it’s a mix of domestic and foreign, urban and rural, dry, wet, cold, hot. For practical and legal reasons, I will likely keep a small place in Florida.
Since childhood, I have lived in Michigan, Ohio, Australia, Ontario, Illinois, North Dakota, Boston, Northern Cal, Mississippi, Toronto, Alberta, Oregon, Idaho, Southern Cal. I liked and loved them all in different ways, except perhaps Mississippi, where I felt like an utter Yankee. Most adult years have been in the West, where I’m now likely to stay. Not exactly because it’s Blue, but because there is an openness that matches the wide landscape. Perhaps the reason Americans moved west to reinvent themselves.
I was raised in Massachusetts and now live in California and I will not move. I won’t even spend any tourist dollars in places like Florida or Texas. No way no how. Not a chance.
I live in Sacramento CA. It’s impossible to beat Northern California. But when I retire in 10 years, unless my finances have vastly improved by then, I’ll have to move. My first choice would be Canada (it’s in America!) but I can’t afford to emigrate there... looking at countries south of the US border including Costa Rica.
I live in Illinois. I think Pritzker has done a fantastic job of lessening our debt, and he has also fixed most of our pension issues. I cannot tell you all the great, progressive things he has passed/done for our state. He is helping us get a bigger bang for our buck!
I live in South C(r)ook County and my property taxes are pretty high, but I file a protest regularly, and that has helped bring them down a bit. Steven Beschloss knows my community well, as he went to high school with my brother at HFHS. Our community is active, LGBTQ friendly, well integrated, and just a real gem! I'm not going anywhere...going to stick around to make this community the best it can be!
For obvious moral and political reasons there are few states left I would move to or encourage my kids to go to. The East and West coast states are good. I've lived and worked in the deep south and Florida and West Virginia ! Decades ago I would have lived in the upper Midwest. Now I avoid there and the rest of the inner West. I've lived and worked in the deep south during college, and was shocked and sick. Now it's even worse. As a reporter I've covered civil rights, poverty and education on all over, so when friends would say the South had changed, I knew they were wrong. I was raised in Connecticut, schooled there, then in Massachsetts. Sorry. I've known lots of wonderful people all over the states, but these days the truth is out, and I'll live my last few years in the Northeast. I apologize to the the next generation for the mess mine has left the United States. Bill Doolittle
I was born & grew up in Jersey City, NJ; after the WTC truck bombing in Feb 1993 I left Wall St. In August of 2001, moved to Vermont from San Francisco. Woodbury is equidistant to the capital of Montpelier & the town of Hardwick.
I have been very active in town life: the board of civil authority, JP, library director, lister (tax assessor) & in local & general elections at the polls. Vermont is a blue state. I fell safe & "protected" by living in the 1st state to introduce & pass same-sex marriage without direction or pressure from the courts.
I lived in Denmark & Canada & have had many extended trips (4 wks+) to Europe (Italy, France, UK,) & Argentina.
But, approaching my 70s, where would I go in a world of increasingly frightening authoritarianism, nationalism & Christian nationalism? Northern coastal Maine appeals to me but climate change (I was a reinsurance analyst) is an imminent catastrophe & in tracking VT's climate projections compared to other states I find hope in the energy behind activists & legislators who are not willfully ignorant.
I will stay put. I love the loons & the lake & my garden.
Perhaps more people young & not so young will join us. Even if they dislike winters--- it's getting much warmer up here.
Fr ride down escalator thought about Canada. But, not sure retirees welcome. Have Sotch/Irish & German ancestors so Scotland or Ireland maybe. If in US, maybe VT, NM. Of course a State may not always stay 'blue' My dreams but prob stay in downstate IL - no not southern, rest state keeps us blue
This is damn depressing. The last time I began contemplating moving, in 1997, I was living in DC, and I could have moved just about anywhere, without being wealthy. I considered the Bay Area, Seattle, Salt Lake City, and Boston (where my parents were getting old).
I ended up outside of Boston, because of my parents--who began dying shortly after I arrived (my mother, then a year later, my father). Now, all of those places except SLC would probably be too expensive for me, but SLC is undergoing major water shortages, and dangerous pollution from the shrinking of the Great Salt Lake.
And the only one besides Boston where I might want to be now is Seattle, which retains the charm it had when I lived there as a young child, although it spooks me that Seattle, where I have never been anything except comfortably warm during the summer, had 108 degree temps last year.
Given the political trajectory of the US, I regret not having moved to Scandinavia as a young man, when learning the language(s) and making friends would have been a lot easier than now. Or perhaps moving to France, where I'd lived when I was 12, and speak the language.
I live in the blue state of New York - upstate. When Bush II was elected, I thought of moving to Canada. Again, when Trump was elected. Now I'm just too old to move anywhere. So I'll just finish out my years here in my safe (for now) blue state.
One more thing: I'm Jewish and have always had one eye on Israel's Law of Return. If I need to, I'll move there.
We have been planning a move to the Northeast. We live in New Orleans, the only city that is tolerable in Louisiana from the standpoint of our politics. The weather here is intolerable, however. I have longed to live in a blue state among people who share our views. The determining factor for us is climate change. Louisiana is not a state that has a great deal of promise in that regard.
Canada!
First-time reader here: I was hoping for respectful dialogue, but see that there's a lot of the usual insults and cheap shots, layered with arrogance and superiority. Thanks, but no thanks. I left social media for this reason, and see that this thread is just more of the same, with some nice-sounding people and thoughtful comments sprinkled in. I had hoped for better, and thank those of you who responded to the question thoughtfully. First and last time visitor.
I just want to live in either a blue or purple state. Idaho has become unbearable the past few years. Too many conservatives are coming here for the red politics. I call them Right Wing Nut Jobs -RWNJs
I will now never live in Texas, Florida, or Utah and several other states are on the edge. I currently reside in Kentucky and am planning to move from here too as it is too red and conservative for me; I am ashamed of our senators and my representative and their policies.
Thankfully I'm in a blue state, NJ. And have all of the advantages of NYC 1 hour away. Especially MoMA. The Berkshires are only 3 hours away. Philly only 2 hours away. Thankfully I'm retired and don't have to worry about moving for a job. Each of the past few years and into next year I'm upgrading a room in my townhouse condo. My condo community is beautiful. I am not going anywhere. I'm happy and content with where I am.
Lived my childhood/youth in suburbs of Cleveland, OH - but then moved to the KS side of the Kansas City area where I've stayed all my adult life (I'm 60). My wife and I are blue dots in a red state, but there are redder nearby.... It's true - you put down roots, or plant seeds - whatever - and tend to stay where those are growing. One of the two daughters is nearby with grandkids. We're retired, but are involved with other things locally that we'd lose if we moved. If we weren't tied down here, then weather/climate would be a big consideration - it is hotter and drier here than it used to be - a cooler summer with a Great Lake nearby often sounds very appealing in the summer. Problem is, we aren't so much into the cold winters as we've aged either. And we're not ones to do an annual migration.
I’m from Jersey, moved to Florida then moved to Georgia….I’m sorry I moved to Georgia now but realistically it’s not beneficial to Mo e anymore…but if I were to move, I’d move back to Jersey…
Retired in Miami after a lifetime living and working in New York. Miami is a bubble in a red bath. Tolerable but just. Traffic rage and social disintegration are always nipping at your heals but the weather is decent with ocean breezes. Maine is my first choice of places to move to now. The weather holds us back. And then there’s Portugal. Or Costa Rica. Never thought I’d even consider leaving but yeah, it may be time. Effing Republicans.