- Jul 20, 2016
- 6,572
- 20,209
A research group looked at the temporary and permanent address changes filed with the postal service in the US - close to 16 million between February and July, which reflects a slight increase of permanent moves from the same period in 2019 and a whopping 27% increase in temporary moves.
There are plenty stories about people fleeing New York and California, but I found the destinations to be of most interest. Knowing the areas listed in Texas, I can tell you that they are smaller towns surrounding the larger cities such as Dallas, Houston, and Austin. So why the satellite cities? Housing costs might be the first guess, and to some extent it is a factor. People coming from California are astounded at how much more house they can get for their dollars. Yet, housing in these smaller cities is not exactly cheap. Why else? Schools are definitely a factor because the systems in the bigger cities are notoriously troubled.
Still, I think there is another factor - community. There is a development style known as live-work-play, which means that people live a more community based life. At present there is a push in many cities to do just the opposite and increase the density by eradicating traditional single-family neighborhoods. On the surface, the reasoning seems Ok, but in practice it is awful. Streets are lined with cars, schools are over-crowded, people don't form relationships with neighbors .... and ..... in the event of some kind of epidemic, the higher density contributes to the spread. In other words, just the scenario these people are fleeing.
The long-term effects will be interesting.
The most significant outlier in the USPS data was the parabolic spike in temporary address changes, mostly due to city-dwellers escaping large metros during coronavirus lockdowns.
Besides USPS data, MyMove also examined a Pew Research Center survey of 10,000 Americans conducted in July. The study allowed MyMove to understand why and where people moved.
"About a quarter (28%) told us [they chose to move] because they feared getting COVID-19 if they stayed where they were living," said D'Vera Cohn, senior writer and editor for Pew who published the study findings, told MyMove.
"About a fifth (20%) said they wanted to be with their family, or their college campus closed (23%). A total of 18% gave financial reasons, including job loss," Cohn said.
There are plenty stories about people fleeing New York and California, but I found the destinations to be of most interest. Knowing the areas listed in Texas, I can tell you that they are smaller towns surrounding the larger cities such as Dallas, Houston, and Austin. So why the satellite cities? Housing costs might be the first guess, and to some extent it is a factor. People coming from California are astounded at how much more house they can get for their dollars. Yet, housing in these smaller cities is not exactly cheap. Why else? Schools are definitely a factor because the systems in the bigger cities are notoriously troubled.
Still, I think there is another factor - community. There is a development style known as live-work-play, which means that people live a more community based life. At present there is a push in many cities to do just the opposite and increase the density by eradicating traditional single-family neighborhoods. On the surface, the reasoning seems Ok, but in practice it is awful. Streets are lined with cars, schools are over-crowded, people don't form relationships with neighbors .... and ..... in the event of some kind of epidemic, the higher density contributes to the spread. In other words, just the scenario these people are fleeing.
The long-term effects will be interesting.
