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A pandemic migration has begun, at least for young adults aged 18 to 31.
According to a Bankrate.com survey, it was found that 31% of people in this age cohort moved permanently or for an extended period of time during the pandemic. This compares with 16% of adults in general.
Generation Z, which ranges from 18 to 24 years old, was more likely to pick up stakes, with 32% transfer. Then there were millennials (25 to 40 years old), with 26%.
Generation X members (ages 41 to 56) and baby boomers (ages 57 to 75) were less likely to move, with 10% and 5% making moves, respectively.
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The main reason people moved was to be closer to friends and family, which was cited by 31% of respondents. Then there was a more affordable life, with 27%, or a relocation to get a job, 21%.
Others were motivated by opportunities for more space, 18%; different climates, 17%; or the ability to work from anywhere, 17%.
Although many of the respondents left the cities, they did not go very far.
In the New York subway area, the five most popular places to move from Manhattan were less than 15 miles away, according to Bankrate’s analysis of U.S. postal service data.
Meanwhile, people who left other cities, such as Austin, Dallas, Houston or Orlando, chose new bases of origin less than 30 miles away.
“It seems like people just get out of the denser neighborhoods to go to places where they can get a little more money,” said Zach Wichter, a mortgage and real estate journalist at Bankrate.
Bankrate’s research emerged from an online survey conducted in February that included 5,158 adults. They also reviewed requests for a change of address from the U.S. Postal Service from January 1 to December 31, 2020.