BOISE, Idaho — For the past several years, we watched as Idaho made just about every housing market list and we witnessed people from all over the country moving to the gem state, giving birth to the term our ‘Growing Idaho.’
Which poses the question, is our growing Idaho, now grown?
“So, we've seen a lot of growth in Idaho over the past decade, but here in the last few years, it's starting to dissipate,” said Eily Cummings, Vice President of Corporate Communications for United Van Lines.
Just this week, moving and relocation company United Van Lines released its 46th Annual National Movers Study revealing the top 10 states, where and why Americans moved in 2022.
For the first time since 2014, Idaho did not make the list.
“So, what we're really seeing for the state of Idaho, for instance, in our COVID year 2020, we saw about 70% movement in compared to 30% movement out and here in 2022, we're looking at 55% moving in, so more of a balanced state for Idaho here in 2022, than the growth that we've seen over the past decade,” Cummings said.
She told KTVB, that study is based on the company's shipment data and tracks trends from year over year. They've also noticed another trend when it comes to the gem state.
“Over the course of the last maybe three, four or five years, we've really seen a lot of retirement movement in Idaho and we're not seeing that here in 2022, which is also a little different than years past,” Cummings said.
For perspective, KTVB reached out to the Boise Regional Realtors to find out if studies like this have any impact on what they're seeing when it comes to the housing market. Debbi Myers is the 2023 President of Boise Regional Realtors board of directors and has worked in the industry for 27 years.
“I don't think that that's a big indicator that suddenly the pipeline has dried up, or people are not moving into Idaho,” Cummings said. “We're still seeing plenty of people purchasing homes in Idaho and moving here and of course, the market has slowed, the interest rates went up and we're just seeing some normalization, basically, prices are getting to be more realistic, which is a good thing for consumers.”
She adds, they've also seen a trend when it comes to how people move over the last several years.
“It used to be that when people relocated from one state to another, they brought every stick of everything they owned and we're seeing a trend where people are bringing fewer items and purchasing new or downsizing or doing other things, so it is not unusual that fewer people are using moving companies because there are other options available,” Myers said.
While the growth in our growing Idaho may be slowing, it's not over.
“Many areas of the country, people have just slowed down purchasing from the crazy, wild market we saw during COVID, Myers said. “In my career, I have experienced some seriously down markets, and this is not one of them.”
United Van Lines also found when it comes to people moving from northern California to Idaho, that was also down almost 10% last year.
The top five states Americans moved to last year were: Vermont, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Delaware, according to the study.
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