BY MARC LUTZ
MLUTZ@IDAHOBUSINESSREVIEW.COM
There’s something shiny about the Gem State that’s drawing people here.
A recent study revealed that Idaho tops the list of states people are moving to from other states due to job opportunities and housing affordability.
StorageCafe.com, an online company that helps movers find storage space and tracks trends, studied migration patterns to all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Their results showed Idaho, Vermont and Montana were the top three states, respectively, where people from other states were moving.
State-to-state movers totaled 7.9 million in 2021 and 8.2 million in 2022, the study results found. In Idaho, that equated to 25 new residents per 1,000 existing residents in 2021. That is five times higher than the number of people per capita who moved to Texas.
Among the reasons for the influx, the study reports, are more job opportunities and more affordable housing costs. And the top three states moving to Idaho are California, Washington and Colorado, respectively.
Of the Californians moving to Idaho, 35% are Baby Boomers in or nearing retirement. Median housing prices in California, according to StorageCafe, are 76% higher than in Idaho. The study showed that 55% of the Californians moving to the state purchased a home within their first year of living here.
Millennials topped the list of the generation moving to Idaho, mostly from Washington state. Colorado loses about 6,000 people per year to Idaho, however those are mostly Gen-Xers.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, Alaska saw the largest out-migration at 14.96% of the population leaving the state, a trend that has continued for several years. New York ranked second at 14.92% and Illinois was third at 10.48%.