Hope for the local real estate market
From the Boston Globe:
For the first time in at least two decades, more US residents are moving to Massachusetts than moving out, a dramatic turnaround that has helped fuel the state’s sharpest population growth since 2001, according to new estimates from the US Census Bureau.
The increase, which was recorded from July 2008 to July 2009, stunned demographers accustomed to a yearly exodus of residents packing up and moving to warmer climes. Taking into account the number of people who left the state and the number who entered, the net gain was only 3,600, but it was the first time that number has been positive in 20 years.
The relative resilience of the Massachusetts economy, coupled with a softer housing market in the state, helped attract and retain residents, demographers said. At the same time, high unemployment and tumbling housing prices forced residents who might have left the state in better times to stay put.
File under: Good news for sellers.