Everyone’s RUNNING To Michigan From New York! - The U.S Census bureau said that the big apple lost nearly half a million people, which equates to roughly 5.3% of the population since the start of the covid pandemic for a number of reasons. Would you believe me if I said New York was among the top 10 states people are moving from to Michigan?
Well, it is, and I'll tell you why. Even though everyone in the world would love the opportunity to run around the concrete jungle for a day or two, New York continues to lead the nation in population loss according to new data from the U.S census bureau. That may come as a surprise to many of you, but the question I'd be wondering is why? Aside from the restrictions that came early on in the pandemic, Hudson Valley post dished out several of the most common reasons people are leaving New York in droves to call places like Michigan their new home.
The U.S Census bureau said that the big apple lost nearly half a million people, which equates to roughly 5.3% of the population since the start of the covid pandemic for a number of reasons. Would you believe me if I said New York was among the top 10 states people are moving from to Michigan? Well, it is, and I'll tell you why.
Even though everyone in the world would love the opportunity to run around the concrete jungle for a day or two, New York continues to lead the nation in population loss according to new data from the U.S census bureau. That may come as a surprise to many of you, but the question I'd be wondering is why? Aside from the restrictions that came early on in the pandemic, Hudson Valley post dished out several of the most common reasons people are leaving New York in droves to call places like Michigan their new home.
COST OF LIVING
Starting with the most obvious fact, and that’s the cost of living. According to the U.S news ranking for the cost of living per state, New York was sitting at 48th on this list, while Michigan sits at 24th on the list. With the cost of living going up nationwide and inflation hitting new highs, people are heavily contemplating moving to different states so they can actually keep some money in their pockets. With this in mind, if we factor in home prices, New York's average home price is $441,462, which is up 2.8% year over year, while Michigan averaged $238,060, which is up roughly 1.8% year over year. As far as other aspects of the cost of living, I'll rattle off a few percentages to put everything in perspective. In Michigan you’ll pay 7.9% less at restaurants, 15.4% less on groceries, 16% less for transportation, 19.6% less for housing (which includes, internet, utilities, rent prices, etc.). 19.1% less for childcare, 18.2% less for entertainment and sports, and 7.8% less for clothing. It’s fair these percentages are pretty significant and enough for any person to consider making the move to the great lakes state. I’ve been reading several articles and reports from New York sources about how even though someone lands that steady job they’ve been working so hard for, there’s still a financial concern and with that in mind, there’s reports of more and more New Yorkers turning to cheaper suburbs, despite their work commutes.
In a recent report released by wallethub, they compared the 50 states across the three tax types of state tax burdens — property taxes, individual income taxes and sales and excise taxes, and since a lot of taxation is situational to an individual. They created this “tax burden” state based on those three tax types, and New York ranked #1 with a total tax burden of 12.47%, which accounts for 4.36% in property taxes, 4.72% in individual taxes, and 3.39% on total sales and excise tax. Michigan on the other hand ranked 38th, coming in with a total tax burden of 7.40%, which accounted for 3.02% in property taxes, 1.81% in individual taxes, and 2.57% on total sales and excise tax. I won’t beat a dead horse here, but the cost of living exceeds in MIchigan in most, if not all categories.
JOB OPPORTUNITIES
Stepping on over to reason number two why people are running from New York to places like Michigan, is for the job opportunities. And I think this could be an extremely controversial topic, because on one hand you have Alicia Keys singing the Concrete jungle where dreams are made of, and There's nothin' you can't do, but on the other hand, New York has earned the reputation as being made for certain jobs and industries, like banking and finance, but what do you do if you don’t want to do that? Throughout these articles I read, it stated several times that despite the opportunity New York gives, people feel like a small fish in a huge pond and struggle to find their place, their purpose, and their why that gets them out of bed every morning, and even though I visited New York for a real short time, I felt that way almost immediately. Maybe it was the lack of acknowledgement of walking by people, or just the fact that there were thousands and thousands of people roaming the streets, and if one day I didn’t take that same walking route, no one would care. It’s just an interesting observation I made.
I’m not downplaying this state or New York City, because there are people who thrive in that hustle and bustle, love the competition, fighting tooth and nail for a place and having to build deep connections to get a well-paying job. Hudson Valley Post stated that 23.04% of people moving out of New York, did so for a new job opportunity, and aside from moving for family, this was one of the biggest reasons people move from New York to Michigan. Another point I found interesting, is along with the U.S news cost of living ranking, they also did a ranking for opportunity. This touches on metrics such as: economic opportunity, affordability and equality within a state. Michigan ranked 21 on the list and New York came in at 49th.
LIFESTYLE CHANGE
The next reason people are flying out of New York in droves is for a lifestyle change. This happens to be the #2 most common reason why New Yorkers are moving out of the state, and it equated to nearly 30% of the people moving out of the state. I think New York is definitely getting a lot of heat for being a state a lot of people are moving out of because throughout the pandemic, people understood the importance of family, and when you run to a state like New York to chase your dream, people found themselves realizing family was more important than the dream they are chasing, but nonetheless, it’s a statistic. People want out of the busyness and are looking for ways they can slow down, and not be running at all cylinders 24/7. I will give New York the benefit of the doubt though, because a lot of the sources out there make the image and reputation of the state of New York based solely on New York City, but there must be a reason people are wanting to move out of the state completely instead of simply move to the outskirts of the city or up state.
RETIREMENT
The #1 reason why people are moving out of New York is for retirement. Of course the cost of living has a lot to do with it, but they also just want some nicer weather and a beach to kick their feet up, and I don’t blame them. I made a video a little while back about why retirees are making the move to Michigan, and despite the weather, there’s actually a lot of them flocking this way, and it’s because Michigan is a relatively tax-friendly place for retirees, the state does not tax social security and there’s a lot of incentives and deductions for seniors. I read in one of the articles that New York loses more Baby Boomer retirees than any other state, which is interesting, but not surprising.
Stepping over to the next reason people move away from New York, and that’s the weather. Fox weather compiled a list of the 7 U.S cities that have the highest annual snowfall, but for this analysis, it only included cities with a population of at least 50,000. Buffalo new york came in at #4 on the list for 95.4 inches, Rochester New York came in at #3 for 102 inches, and Syracuse, New York came in at 127.8 inches. I know what you’re thinking, okay that’s for heavily populated areas that doesn’t count and yes that is true, but anyone that experiences a hefty winter can agree that the more cars and traffic on the road, the worse the experience is, because the rural cities that get the most snow tends to be manageable when you’re on a two lane road all by yourself. Looking at another list for the top 10 snowiest cities in the U.S sault ste Marie did rank number one because it’s got that lake effect being near the connection of lake Huron and lake superior, whereas Syracuse ranked 2nd, and Muskegon Michigan ranked 7th. So it’s safe to say in terms of the white stuff, the states are fairly similar spending on what region of the state you’re in. When it comes to the warmer weather times, the states are fairly equal, but I am going to be bias for a second and say Michigan wins, because no matter where you are in the state you are never more than 6 miles away from a lake or body of water, and you can’t tell me that lakes don’t make a summer that much better.
HEALTHCARE
The next reason why people are leaving New York for places like Michigan is healthcare. I think this is a controversial topic as well, but it’s not so much about the quality of healthcare as it is the cost of it. Looking at newsweek’s world’s best hospitals in 2023, New York has two hospitals ranking 9th and 10th on the list whereas Michigan has a hospital that ranks 11th, so loosely put, they compete pretty well with one another in terms of overall quality, but according to Forbes Advisor, which did a comprehensive ranking for the most and least expensive states for healthcare which also included the district of Columbia across 11 key metrics using data from the Kaiser foundation to determine the ranks. Michigan actually ranked the lowest at 51, whereas New York was the 11th highest. Michigan has an average healthcare cost per person of just over $9500 dollars, whereas New York had an average healthcare cost per person of over $13,000.
For those of you that stuck around until the end, what are your thoughts about the Michigan and New York comparison, comment your thoughts below!
If you’re looking to buy, sell or invest in the wonderful state of Michigan, feel free to find my contact information in the description below, I’d love to be your go to resource.
Cheers,
Andrew
Andrew McManamon is a Michigan REALTOR® with Signature Sotheby’s International Realty and provides real estate services to Buyers, Sellers and Investors throughout SE Michigan including Livingston County, Oakland County, Washtenaw County, Genesee County & beyond. Andrew has become one of the rising stars of Michigan real estate agents. Prior to his real estate career Andrew was responsible for managing a senior living facility in Brighton, Michigan as a dining supervisor and an activities assistant. Andrew’s passion to help people is unlike any other, and he continues to strive to be best resource he can be. Andrew graduated from Cleary University in Howell, Michigan with a double major and currently resides in Brighton, Michigan.