A story posted on Yahoo today states that people are leaving high home price areas and moving to areas less populated that offer less expensive housing, less traffic and lower crime. The article states that some areas have appreciated as much as 125% which is driving many people out. I have a client that lives is Seattle and is moving because she fears her daughters that are very young right now will not be able to afford a home and stay near them because of the strong appreciation.
Many major cities were mentioned in the article that can be read here and has several interesting links and mentions several different studies: http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/moneyhappy/28438
In my own area of S.W. Idaho there was an article that came out in the local paper that for the first time ever the population in the capital city of Boise had declined while the population of the smaller neighboring county "Canyon County" has increased.
I have found this to be true. With the "Gold Rush" of 2005 where we saw an alarming amount of transplants into Idaho more and more people are leaving the large capital city of Boise and moving west for the same reasons given in the article.
If this the article is on the money and there is a trend here then those of us affected by the loss of residents need to make a realistic assessment of what it will do to our markets.
Those of us that will benefit from from the migration need to look at what this will mean and how we can attract these new buyers to us.
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