PORTLAND, Ore. – If you follow the news like we do you know that Portland has been one of the top destinations for relocation in the United States over the last year and a recent survey from United Van Lines confirmed this when it crowned Portland as one of the top moving destinations in the United States.
Oregon was the most popular moving destination of 2015 with 69 percent of moves to and from the state being inbound. The state has continued to climb the ranks, increasing inbound migration by 10 percent over the past six years. New to the 2015 top inbound list is another Pacific West state, Washington, which came in at No. 10 with 56 percent inbound moves.
The Southern states also saw a high number of people moving in with 53 percent of total moves being inbound. In a separate survey of its customers, United Van Lines found the top reasons for moving South included company transfer/new job, retirement and proximity to family.
Source – United Van Lines
Portland Is Growing
Although Portland’s popularity as one of the nation’s top choices for relocation has brought many new residents, jobs, tax payers and businesses to the region it’s also driven up housing costs and Portland has the 12th highest rent in the United States and home prices have risen dramatically as well, topping the $400,000 mark for the first time in recent history.
Thanks to rising home values many long-time homeowners have been able to move up to bigger homes, move closer to the downtown area, or purchase rental properties for the first time.
Not All Outsiders Are To Blame
Yes, Portland is experiencing growing pains but what’s not been talked about is that more people within Oregon are moving to Portland and this dispels the myth that it’s all outsiders from California or other states who are responsible for driving up housing costs and home values within the Portland area.
In a recent interview with koin.com Ben Hoskins, owner of You Move Me Portland confirmed that his business has grown in the last few years thanks to Portland’s hot housing market which has seen many locals move up to bigger and better rentals or become homeowners and move into their first homes.
Hoskins owns another franchise closely tied to residential moves, 1-800-GOT-JUNK, which hauls away unwanted household items. According to Hoskins, business at both companies has increased substantially in recent years as the economy has recovered.
“Our business has tripled since 2009,” he says, noting that his company moved more than 900 households during the first three months of the year alone.
Source – koin.com
Moving Statistics for the Portland Area
As with any story the statistics never lie and tell the real story behind what’s really happening with moves within the Portland area.
U.S. Census figures also show that well over half of the people who moved to Multnomah County between 2009 and 2013 came from within the region or the rest of the state.
According to the Census, the population of the county grew from 726,855 to 766,135 people during those five years — an increase of 39,280 residents. The vast majority, 26,249 people, moved from within the state, and most didn’t travel very far.
Between 2009 and 2013, a total of 18,266 people moved to the county from one of the other six counties in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro region, as defined by the federal government. The largest number, 7,561 people, moved from Washington County. The second-largest number, 7,281 people, moved from Clackamas County. Clark County contributed 2,506 people. And 918 people moved from Columbia, Yamhill and Skamania counties.
During that same time, 8,272 people moved to the county from the rest of the state. The largest number, 1,769 people, came from Lane County. The second-largest number, 1,396 people, came from Marion County. The rest of the state contributed 5,107 people.
Census figures also show that more than 10 percent of Multnomah County’s residents move to another location within the county every year. The 82,500 who moved within the county in 2014 was far more than the 51,135 people who moved to the entire state that year.
Although some of those moves are people who are being displaced by rent increases, You Move Me Portland co-owner Robert Christensen says most of their customers are moving up.
“Right now, people are moving into larger apartments or their dream homes,” says Christensen, whose nearly 30 employees are currently doing up to five moves a day, and sometimes more.
More coming than going
Oregon was the top moving destination in the country for the third year in a row in 2015, according to United Van Lines’ annual study of its interstate moves.
The moving company’s study found that almost 70 percent of its moves involving Oregon were people moving to the state, compared to just 30 percent moving out.
The next-highest state in 2015 was North Carolina, where a little more than 62 percent of the moves were into the state and just under 38 percent were out of it. The percents were similar for Vermont, the No. 3 destination.
The company says the number of people moving to Oregon has increased by 10 percent in the past six years.
“We are seeing people drawn for lifestyle issues: more green space and looking for a lower cost of living,” says Melissa Sullivan, director of marketing communications at UniGroup, which operates United Van Lines.
Oregon was the No. 1 state in 2015 by percentage of moves, not number of moves. Of the 123,000 moves in the study, 4,173 were to Oregon. But some larger states drew a lot more people. The biggest gainer was California, with 26,715 moves, followed by Texas, with 20,694 moves, and North Carolina, with 18,056 moves.
Source – koin.com
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