The Census Bureau recently released reports on geographic mobility, which could give some indiation of where demand for construction may be found. In his digest of the Census data, Ken Simonson, Chief Economist, Associated General Contractors of America observed that North Carolina ranked second in net inflows (the total amount of moves into the state minus moves out).
“The percentage of people who changed residences between 2010 and 2011-11.6%-was the lowest recorded rate since the Current Population Survey began collecting statistics on the movement of people in the United States in 1948,” the Census Bureau reported on geographical mobility.
The total number of interstate moves declined from 7.9 million people in 2005-2006 to 6.7 million in 2009-2010. The top three destinations were Texas, 487,000 moves from other states, U.S. possessions and foreign countries; Florida, 483,000; and California, 445,000. California, Florida and Texas were also the top three states (in that order) for outmigration but they differed greatly in net flows: Texas added a net 75,000 residents from elsewhere (the largest net inmigration), Florida added 55,000 (third) and California lost 129,000 (the largest net outmigration).
The next largest net outflows were from New York, -94,000; Illinois, -74,000; and New Jersey, -66,000. North Carolina ranked second in net inflows (56,000). Read More.