Archive for the 'Relocation' Category
Although you’d be hard-pressed to name any region of the country that hasn’t had the recession sink its teeth into its hide, Texas has clearly been able to steer clear of the sharpest fangs. 
According to our data, Texas enjoys a health demand from people who are relocating or looking to relocate.
In particular, the cities of Austin and San Antonio are popular on a per-capita basis.
Our statistics look at where people are moving from, and where they’re moving to. We collect the data from consumers who request moving services from moving companies in our network.
Looking at Relocation.com data collected from 2007, 2008 and 2009, of all moving requests that involve Texas, 62% of those requests were people who expressed a desire to move to Texas; 38% were people who were looking to leave the State. To put this into some perspective: of moving requests involving Michigan in 2008, 71% were people looking to leave the state; just 29% were people looking to move to Michigan.
Texas cities also show admirable strength, particularly Austin. Its per-capita ratio is nearly twice that of the next city on the list, San Antonio. Most large Texas cities showed a great deal of demand for people to move to those cities. For this measure, we looked at interstate moves, as well as intrastate moves that do not include moves within that city’s MSA — we weren’t interested in someone who was simply moving from one side of town to the other.
The results: Austin: 60% of moving requests involved people wanting to move TO Austin; 40% involved people who wanted to move out of Austin.
San Antonio: 57% and 43% respectively;
Dallas/Fort Worth: 56% and 44%
Houston: 54% and 46%
The only city that bucked this trend was El Paso. Of all moves involving El Paso, 55% were people looking to leave El Paso; 45% were people looking to move to El Paso.
Other Relocation.com stats:
Tennessee Moving: Sign Me Up for the Volunteer State
Montana Moving: More Opt for Big Sky
Relocation.com’s 2008 Relocation Survey
I recently got an email that perhaps reflects a situation faced by many people. Her home sale had fallen through, even after she had lined up all the movers and was ready to get going in a new community.
She was conflicted — should she sign a lease and just rent for awhile? Or should we put her stuff in her storage and look for a home real quick-like? There’s really no way easy way to answer, and much depends on your personal situation.
A: Move into an apartment while you wait to buy a house.
Let’s assume you commit to being there for a year. Although some people feel any money spent on rent is a waste, the real estate and mortgage market is in a great deal of flux and you’ll have a better idea of what’s a ‘good’ deal in a year or so.
You’ll also have a better idea of what kind of help the government is going to give you. As part of the stimulus bill, the government’s granted an $8000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers. However, if the housing market doesn’t get back on its feet pretty soon, I could see politicians rushing out another incentive to spark the housing market. In other words, waiting might pay off.
Will you miss out on price appreciation? I don’t know where you’re moving, but real estate prices don’t seem poised to take off any time soon, so I doubt you’ll miss much any appreciation. (Actually, I don’t think it matters where you’re moving — the market’s probably gonna be pretty moribund for at least another year.)
If you rent a year, you can get to know the area better, and really look at all your options. If you put your stuff in storage assuming you’ll buy pretty quickly, you might feel an itch to buy a place and get done with it — and make a poor decision.
The downside is that you’re moving twice. You’ll get settled in at your new place, and all of a sudden you’ll be looking to move. Even for people who move a lot, it’s a quick turnaround. You might spend a year living out of a box. For some people, that sounds like fun – for others, it’s torture.
B: Put your stuff in short-term storage while you hunt for a house.
The advantage to this option is primarily financial: you’ll save money on moving and rental costs. (You didn’t say where you’d be living while you look for a new home – I assume you’re crashing with friends or relatives or some other cheap, non-rent-paying option.)
The bigger question is whether you’re comfortable with living with just a few of your items while the bulk of your stuff is in storage?
Also, as I mentioned above, if you’re assuming you’re going to find a new home quickly, you might rush to buy a new home and make a bad decision. If you rent for a year, you have time to think things through.
The financial breakdown:
Option A: You pay rent for a year. You move twice (although your second move will be cheaper because it’s a local move, I assume the first one is long distance moving).
Option B: You purchase storage for a short period of time, while you hunt for a home. Talk to the moving company who moves you about them putting stuff in storage for you – it’s easier and you might get a better deal on storage from them, rather than a self-storage facility (although you probably won’t be able to get your items EXACTLY when you need them – it will depend on the moving company’s timetable for when they have moving crews and such to pull your items from storage). Also check out PODs.
So option A is more expensive, but there’s a lot more to this question than just dollars and cents.
You also have other options if you only need space for a short amount of time. One of those is corporate housing, which is generally used by employees who are on work assignment away from home and need a place to stay. A Website that helps people hook up with this kind of housing is Corporate Housing by Owner.
Despite the economic turmoil swirling in much of the country, Tennessee will likely continue attracting newcomers to the state, our research has found.
We analyzed nearly 500,000 requests for moving services in 2008 and found that 58% of all interstate move requests for Tennessee involved people who wanted to move to Tennessee from another state; 42 % involved people who wanted to leave Tennessee for another state.
Three major Tennessee cities showed similar numbers over the two-year span of 2007 and 2008:
Nashville: 56% of all interstate moves involved people moving to the city; 44% involved people moving out of the city.
Knoxville: 53% of all interstate moves involved people moving to the city; 47% involved people moving out of the city.
Chattanooga: 55% of all interstate moves involved people moving to the city; 45% involved people moving out of the city.
The only city bucking that trend was Memphis: Of interstate moves, 62% were requests to move out of the city to another state; 38% were requests to move to the city.
For more information the study and to see how other states and cities ranked, check out this article.
Montana is likely to continue attracting newcomers to the state if it sticks to recent trends, our statistics have found.
Relocation.com analyzed nearly 500,000 requests for moving services in 2008 and found that 59% of all interstate move requests for Montana involved people wanting to move to Montana; 41% of moving requests involved people looking to move out of the state.
So for every 100 people looking to move out of Montana, 145 were looking to move to Montana. The number is consistent with 2007 data, when 62% of moving requests for Montana involved people wanting to move there, while 38% were looking to leave the state. Our statistics cover roughly 3% of moves made anually in the U.S.
Click here for more information on the Relocation.com survey and which states continue to attract residents.
