People are moving to North Carolina in droves during the COVID pandemic, survey finds
People have been flocking to North Carolina for years, and it’s been no different during the coronavirus pandemic, a new survey finds.
North Carolina ranked No. 5 on a list of states that gained residents this year, according to results published last week from the website Move.org.
Nationwide, survey results through September show one in five Americans found new places to live in 2020. Among the people who moved, 33% said they hadn’t planned to relocate this year.
“Nearly half of our survey respondents said their move resulted from income loss and the need for affordable housing,” Move.org reported. “And over a third of respondents said their move was related to COVID-19, either from concerns related to health, work, housing, or money.”
As the coronavirus continues to spread across the country, North Carolina’s COVID-19 cases, deaths and hospitalizations have all climbed to record levels within the past week. The state saw unemployment claims spike in the spring as COVID-19 forced businesses to scale back their operations or close their doors.
But North Carolina, like much of the South, saw coronavirus spikes later in the year than some states, including New York and California.
Even in a year marked with a pandemic, job opportunities and living conditions have helped North Carolina cities earn spots on national lists.
In February, the website Curbed named Charlotte and Raleigh on a list of the list of the best places for people wanting to relocate. North Carolina cities also have been named among the most desirable destinations for millennials and retirees, McClatchy News reported.
Plus, we all know the other factors that make North Carolina an attractive place to live: mild temperatures, beaches, mountains, college basketball and lots of barbecue.
In its 2019 report, U-Haul named North Carolina the nation’s No. 3 place for growth based on the number of moves into the state.
Move.org, a moving resource company, did not estimate how many people moved to North Carolina in 2020. The state is home to about 10.5 million people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
In a blog post last year, Carolina Demography said 848,000 new residents were added since the 2010 census. The highest number of new neighbors came from Florida, with Virginia and South Carolina trailing behind, McClatchy News reported.
This year, survey results from Move.org show 14% of people who moved put down new roots in new states.
A recent RentCafé study found Charlotte was attracting millennial renters mostly from other parts of North Carolina.
“People chose to move locally for different reasons — close proximity to friends and family, the comfort of ‘home,’ job security, or costs of long-distance moving,” Move.org said.
Of course, not everyone this year moved solely because of the coronavirus pandemic. About 45% of people in the recent survey said “upgraded housing” was among the factors that prompted them to leave their homes, results show.
To come up with its findings, Move.org says it teamed up with Pollfish to conduct surveys of 700 people in September and October. Additional data came from CNBC and the U.S. Census Bureau.
Overall, Florida was named the top state for people to move to, findings show. Texas, California and Colorado rounded out the top five.
