Sep 15, 2014
The St. Louis-based moving company United Van Lines found Chicago to be the most popular destination for families to move-to between May and August in 2014, according to its “Summer Long-Distance Moving Trends Study.”
United Van Lines calculates “move count” by determining the percentage of its residential clients moving into a particular city compared to out. The study’s findings suggest more people are leaving states in the Sun Belt and West Coast, and heading toward big cities in the Midwest and Northeast.
This seems to be quite a dramatic turn of events, considering Chicago’s previous rankings. In fact, this past summer’s positive move count of 65.2 percent was the highest since 2006, which is nearly a complete reversal from the 63 percent of residents who left the Windy City during the same time period in 2013. The last time Chicago even had a positive move count was in 2011 at 60.5 percent.
Maybe it was the warmer weather, maybe something in the air, or could it possibly be, as Crain’s Chicago Business political columnist Greg Hinz opined, a sign that the city’s economy is improving?
Hinz has more on what this could mean economically for the city of Chicago:
It’s a little early to say if the new figures are a data hiccup or a the start of a trend, said Michael Stoll, an economist and chair of the Department of Public Policy at the University of California at Los Angeles, who speaks about the study for United.
But Mr.Stoll underlined that two other cities whose industry breakdown resembles Chicago’s — Boston and New York — also had a relatively strong showing in the latest study. That suggests that sectors such as finance, professional businesses and technology, in which Chicago has a strong or growing presence, suddenly are doing well.
So does the fact that the move-ins included disproportionately high numbers of millennials, aged 25 to 35, and people with an annual income of at least $150,000 a year.
Illinois consistently has ranked among the top five states in people moving out in recent years. While the study consists of only 100,000 moves that were handled by just one moving company, don’t be surprised if you see this data used in the Illinois governor’s race, as Hinz writes:
The new data comes amid a furious debate between Gov. Pat Quinn and GOP nominee Bruce Rauner about whether a recent, sharp drop in the state’s unemployment rate is caused by a rising number of jobs, people leaving the workforce or something else. Metropolitan Chicago makes up more than two-thirds of the state’s population.
Here’s more from the actual report on United Van Lines’ methodology:
To capture the city-to-city migration patterns in the U.S., United analyzed domestic moves during the peak moving season – between May 1 and August 31 – when approximately 40 percent of all domestic household goods moves take place.
‘Year after year, May through August are the most popular months to move,’ said Melissa Sullivan, director of marketing communications for United Van Lines. ‘Because United conducts more moves than any other moving company, we’re in a unique position to use this data and observe the migration of American families from city to city and state to state.’
As the nation’s largest household goods mover, United collects and maintains data regarding its moves. For the last 37 years, United has released an annual domestic migration study in January, and this latest peak moving season migration study offers unique insight into the current city-to-city moving patterns. The findings for the full year 2014 will be released in January 2015.
NEXT ARTICLE: A history of Illinois population shifts
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