AFFORDABLE HOUSING DRAWS MIDDLE CLASS TO INLAND CITIES

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AFFORDABLE HOUSING DRAWS MIDDLE CLASS TO INLAND CITIES
Source: New York Times

Domestic migration patterns within the U.S. are increasingly being driven by the quest for cheaper housing, so the country’s fastest-growing cities are now those where housing is more affordable than average. The desire for a new, better, or cheaper home and the opportunity to buy instead of rent were among the housing-related reasons people increasingly cited for moving.

Making sense of the story

• Moving inland to states in the heart of the country is a decisive reversal from the early years of the millennium, when easy credit allowed cities to grow without regard to housing cost and when the fastest-growing cities had housing that was less affordable than the national average.

• Among people who have moved long distances, the number of those who cite housing as their primary motivation for doing so has more than doubled since 2007.

• Rising rents and the difficulty of securing a mortgage on the coasts have proved a boon to inland cities that offer the middle class a firmer footing and an easier life.

• For example, Oklahoma City has outpaced most other cities in growth since 2011. Other affordable cities that have jumped in the growth rankings include several in Texas, including El Paso and San Antonio, as well as Columbus, Ohio, and Little Rock, Ark.

• Tony Trammell, one of a group of about a dozen friends to make the move from San Diego, paid $260,000 for his 3,300-square-foot home in a nearby suburb. “This is the opposite of the gold rush,” Mr. Trammell said.

• For those who moved more than 500 miles, the share who said they were chiefly motivated by housing has risen to 18 percent in 2014, from 8 percent in 2007.

• Glenn Kelman, the chief executive of Redfin, said that when the company started its real estate service in 2006, he expected the business to thrive in coastal centers. “Now we’re growing fastest in the middle of the country; we can’t hire people fast enough in Houston, in Dallas, in Denver. And all of our customers come from the same place — the airport.”

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