Allied Van Lines’ 44th annual “Magnet States Report” says that at least by its own business patterns California is back as on the “inbound list” — states with more folks moving in than out.Moving van activity is seen by some experts as a good indication of migration for executive-level employees. These pricier relocations are often paid for by the moving workers’ employer. And Allied’s California moving patterms were by no means unique as two competitors saw similar trends.
Allied handled 6,574 moves to California last year, up 8 percent vs. 2010 — as well as 6,227 moved away from the Golden State, virtually unchanged in a year. That’s a net gain of 347! (Or look at it this way: In 2011, there were 106 Allied moves to the state for every 100 out. In 2010, it was 98 in for every 100 out.)
What Allied called “the biggest surprise” on its inbound leader board, was ranked No. 7th most popular destination. Note: By this same math, California was the top outbound state in 2004 and 2006 — ranked 40th from the top last year!
Overall, Texas was the top destination, by Allied metrics: It had 1,556 more inbound moves than outbound — but that’s down from 1,640 in 2010. Florida was second with a net gain of 809 moves; followed by South Carolina, Colorado and Oregon.
Illinois had the most net outbound losses followed by Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Jersey and New York.
Linda Oakley, vice president of Atlas Transfer and Storage: “People are realizing that living in California is finally affordable and they’re jumping on that bandwagon. We’ve had customers that we’ve moved out of state that have called us back to say, ‘I want to come home.’”
Bill Lyon, general manager of Allied Van Lines: “Overall, Allied Van Lines has seen modest growth this year, and we see the news from California as a bellwether for positive movement in the future for states that have seen hard times in this economy.”
At United Van Lines, 16,292 of its moves were to California, a 4% increase vs. 2010. Moves away from California totaled 14,758 — down 1% in a year. That means 52.5% of United’s California moves were inbound vs. 51.3% in 2010. By this measure, California was United’s No. 12 inbound location for 2011 vs. 22nd in 2010.
By United’s math, the District of Columbia (62.5% inbound) was once the top destination for the fourth consecutive year. Next came Oregon (60.8%) and Nevada (56.9%) then North Carolina (56.4%) and Florida (55.1%.) Illinois topped Unied’s outbound list, too at 60.8% with New Jersey — 2010′s top loser — second at 60.5% outbound moves. Then came New York New York (58.3%) and Michigan (58.0%) — the state with the highest departure pace from 2006 to 2009.
Then there’s Atlas Van Lines that handled last year 7,803 moves to California, a 9% increase vs. 2010. It’s moves away from California totaled 6,758 — up 4% in a year. So, 53.6% of Atlas’ California moves in 2011 were inbound vs. 52.3% in 2010.
Atlas’ nationwide leader for in-bound activity was — for the sixth year in a row — Washington, D.C. Ohio was tops when it came to outbound moves.
Overall, our trusty spreadsheet tells us that these three van lines combined moved more folks to California than out for the second consecutive year — and third out of the last four. Plus, the 30,669 households moved to California last year was up 5.9% in a year and the highest number of new neighbors since 2008.
But a bit of reality: Last year’s inbound moves were still 23% short of the average years seen in the most recent boom of 2005-2007
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