Americans Find it Increasingly Difficult To Move

Under current housing market conditions, writes Emily Badger in The New York Times, “The simplest and most affordable decision for many Americans will be to stay put — even if their homes become too small, too big, too crowded, too far from work, too isolated from family, or too much to maintain.”

This could pose a problem for the economy, Badger writes, as households find it harder to “change their homes to match their changing lives” and workers have a hard time finding homes near the best job opportunities. “In the mid-1980s, about one in five people in America moved annually, most of them within the same county. By 2021, that number had fallen to one in 12.” Today, “New mortgage applications and home sales have fallen. Money spent remodeling housing has soared. And renters are renewing their leases at record levels.”

Badger notes that “today the most prosperous parts of the country also have the most expensive housing. That deters people from moving where they might find better jobs, ultimately constraining America’s economic growth, economists say.” 

As the article points out, “All of this matters, he said, not just because people need to move for better jobs, or better-fitting homes. America remains deeply segregated by race and income, and research shows that the neighborhoods where children grow up influence their fortunes in life.”