Americans are less mobile than they used to be. In 2015, only 12 percent of Americans had moved to a new address within the past year. In 1948, the percentage of movers was 20 percent, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
“There are two main determining factors whether people move or not,” says Nathalie Williams, a sociology professor from the University of Washington. “The better people feel their lives are going, the less likely they are to move elsewhere.” Economic insecurity can also prompt residents to stay put too, Williams says.
Migration slowed after the housing crisis in 2007. But it is starting to gradually pick up again, says Kenneth Johnson, a demographer at the University of New Hampshire.
Realtor.com®’s research team recently analyzed where people are most likely to stay in a home and are thus the least mobile. The research crew scoured the data on the lowest number of residents who moved to a new home for each of the 100 largest U.S. cities.
They found the following eight cities have the fewest people on the move (listed with the percentage of people who moved into their homes before 1990):
- Detroit: 21.4%
- Honolulu: 20.3%
- Pittsburgh: 18.9%
- Philadelphia: 18.5%
- Baltimore: 16.5%
- Cleveland: 16.4%
- Toledo, Ohio: 16.4%
- New York: 16.1%
Source: “Not-So-Mobile America: What Honolulu and Detroit Residents Have in Common,” realtor.com® (Feb. 27, 2017)
