http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/knau/local-knau-970501.mp3
Phoenix, AZ – The Census Bureau looked at each state in 2009 to find out how many people moved in, how many moved out, where they were coming from and where they went. It's no surprise that lots of Arizonans went to California. But that was dwarfed by the number of Californians deciding they would rather be here. The real big population shift involves the more than 21,000 Arizonans who decided to pack up and move to the Lone Star state, far more than the number of Texans who came to Arizona. University of Arizona economist Marshall Vest said the bottom line is that people move to where the opportunities are.
(Their economy is doing a lot better because they didn't have the housing bubble. The run-up in housing prices happened on both coasts. But it didn't reach the middle of the country.)
And yet, about 12,300 people opted to move to Arizona from Texas, economy and all. So why would they do that?
(Good question. People move for different reasons. Perhaps the people coming from Texas, perhaps they're retirees, where the jobs didn't matter.)
Other than California and Texas, some of the largest sources of new Arizonans were states in the upper Midwest, including a lot of folks from Illinois and Michigan. Vest said the one surprising thing in the report is the breadth of the outward migration, with 18 states gaining more Arizonans than the number of their residents moving here.
(That's very unusual to see that. Normally we might have a half a dozen states that we run a deficit with. And here we have 18.)
For Arizona Public Radio this is Howard Fischer.