North Carolina was among the top ‘growth states’ for 2020, U-Haul says. Here’s why
North Carolina continued to attract new residents in 2020, helping it earn recognition as one of the top-growing states in the country.
North Carolina landed a No. 9 spot on a U-Haul list that weighed the number of one-way moving trucks that entered and left the state, results released Monday show.
As the coronavirus pandemic created hardships across the country, do-it-yourself moving trips to the state were up 11% compared to last year, according to the findings.
“Because North Carolina’s workforce is so tech-heavy, many companies have allowed employees to work from home,” Chuck Watson, president of U-Haul Company of Raleigh, said in a news release. “The other part of that is North Carolina still giving people some freedom of movement. There are some restrictions and everyone is being cautious, but people are still able to work. That’s an asset.”
Recently, the website Move.org ranked North Carolina among the top states gaining residents in 2020. While some Americans in the website’s survey said “upgraded housing” prompted them to find new homes, the pandemic played a role in other people’s decisions.
“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.”
North Carolina isn’t spared from coronavirus-related worries. More than 1 million residents sought jobless benefits in the early days of the pandemic. More recently, the state on Monday reported its third consecutive day of record-breaking COVID-19 patient counts in hospitals.
The pandemic is having an impact on people who want to settle in North Carolina, too. In the Triangle and Charlotte areas, COVID-19 is expected to continue a seller’s market that developed as paused construction projects left home supplies low, The News & Observer reported.
“The housing market in North Carolina is off the chain,” Watson said in the U-Haul news release. “Charlotte is No. 3 on Realtor.com’s top housing markets. Builders can’t keep up with the demand.”
While net moves put North Carolina on the list of top places for growth, U-Haul also says departures from the state were up 12% compared to 2019. As a whole, North Carolina in 2020 fell from the No. 3 spot it previously held on the list of top-growing places.
In U-Haul’s 2019 report, the Raleigh-Durham metro was named the No. 1 area for growth in the nation. Wilmington also earned the No. 24 spot.
This time around, Asheville was the only North Carolina city to be named among the top 25 places for growth.
While U-Haul said its data doesn’t directly tie to population trends, it calls the information “an effective gauge of how well cities are attracting and maintaining residents.” The U.S. Census Bureau has estimated the number of North Carolina residents rose 10% from 2010 to 2019.
Nationwide, many of U-Haul’s top cities and states for growth were in the South. While harsh winters and high costs have pushed some people out of the Northeast, people also tend to move to states that neighbor their own, McClatchy News reported.
Overall, the top-ranking state was Tennessee, while California came out on the bottom, according to the findings.
