High Prices Pushing More Marylanders Out

"High housing prices are pushing Maryland residents to move farther from Washington and, in some cases, to neighboring states such as Pennsylvania and West Virginia, according to a new study released by the Maryland Department of Planning."

"Overall, a record number of residents moved from Maryland to other states from 2005 to 2006, compared with people moving in from other states, based on data going back to 1981. This continues a trend also documented by state planners in another report this year highlighting migration within Maryland."

"In the past, when state planners tracked why people moved in or out of the state, the planners could link it with the relative strength of Maryland's economy. In the mid- to late 1980s, for instance, outsiders poured in to take advantage of a growth in jobs and personal income that was among the fastest in the nation. In the late 1990s, as Maryland's economy cooled, people moved out. And they flowed back in during the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when Maryland's abundance of government and contracting jobs allowed the state to fare well compared with other states."

"Mark Goldstein, an economist with the Maryland Department of Planning, ran a complicated regression analysis, and it showed that economic factors appeared to be less of an influence on whether people moved in and out. A more important factor seemed to be the availability of less expensive houses, particularly in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, he said."