So, you’ve finally decided to give New York City the heave-ho, in search of gentler, cleaner, more reasonably priced lands.
But where do you go?
The city’s Independent Budget Office analyzed census data from 2008 and 2012, charting the destination of former city residents.
The survey covered 124,300 households that moved in 2012, divided into two categories — incomes below $500,000 and incomes above $500,000. The study only included people who moved within the United States.
Of all the analyzed households that moved out of the city that year, 21 percent found a new home within New York State, either in the suburbs or further upstate. Almost 42 percent of high-income households stayed in the state.
The second-ranked destination was New Jersey, where 13.3 percent of all moving households relocated. The third most frequent destination was Florida, where 10.3 percent of all households moved in 2012. However, there was a significant divide between the haves and the haves-a-lot: only 2 percent of high-income movers migrated to Florida, compared to 10.4 percent of households earning less than $500,000.
Wealthy New Yorkers were no more or less likely to move than other households in 2012 (rich people: they’re just like us!).
The moving patterns of regular-income households remained fairly consistent from 2008 to 2012; the top three destination states in both years were New York, New Jersey and Florida.
Meanwhile, high-income New Yorkers were more likely to stay relatively close to the city in 2012. In 2008, the second most popular destination state among that group was California (21.1 percent), after New York (25.2 percent). In 2012, California slid to fourth place (9.2 percent), after New York (41.8 percent), New Jersey (22.4 percent) and Connecticut (12.2 percent). Furthermore, 64.2 percent of wealthy movers chose to relocate in New York or New Jersey in 2012, as opposed to 33.9 percent of other households.
Table: IBO
