A new survey by moveBuddha [1], an online moving services company, has released its predictions for the 2022 calendar year and found that 19% of respondents are considering an interstate move.
The COVID-19 pandemic threw migration trends into a tizzy starting in March 2020. To find some of these trends, moveBuddha conducted a survey in July 2021 reaching 1,011 people, to determine how many moved since the beginning of the pandemic. The same survey was then run in again in January 2022, this time covering 1,515 people, to find the changes between the two data sets.
Over the course of five months between the two surveys, the number of people who reported having moved since the beginning of the pandemic rose from 13% to 17%.
“What’s more, where only 1.4% of July respondents cited remote working arrangements as an influencing factor, 3.1% of January respondents reported that the ability to work from home was a motivation for the move—a more than 120% increase,” said Ryan Carrigan [2], the founder of moveBuddha. “Similarly, COVID-related concerns and regulations was a driving motivation to relocate for 3.7% of July respondents. In January, however, as many as 6% of respondents cited these factors as decisive in their recent move—a 62% increase in six months.”
The report also found that 29.7% of respondents who moved did so to increase their quality of life while other moved due to the cost of living (21.3%), to be closer to friends or family (19.2%), their job or education (13.5%), climate (9.1%), and more space (5.7%).
As to where are people moving to and from, the survey found that 1 in 3 from Northeastern states are considering an out-of-state move in 2022.
“On the other hand, respondents residing in Southern states were the least likely group to move in 2022. Only 3% of residents reported having an out-of-state move planned for 2022, and only 8% were considering one,” Carrigan said. “It is worth noting that, on the whole, Northeastern states are geographically much smaller than states in other regions—so the likelihood that a move of 100 miles will cross state lines is significantly higher.”