There have been forty-six million new movers in the past 12 months. Drilling down a little further, forty-six million people moved to a different ZIP Code in the year through February 2022. This is the most in any 12-month period in records going back to 2010, according to a Moody’s analysis of Equifax Inc. consumer-credit reports.
Analysts who have studied the migration attributed much of it to the pandemic’s severing of the link between geography and the workplace. Remote work allowed many workers to move for financial and lifestyle reasons—cheaper housing, better weather, less traffic and lower taxes, the analysts said.
Top New Mover states include Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas, Nevada, Arizona, and Tennessee.
New Movers are highly motivated consumers. In fact, they spend more on goods and services in their first year at their new residence than any other group. That’s why they are such great marketing prospects!
New Movers Try New Brands
90% of new movers say they would be likely to try a new brand/company for something in their new home. 88% of new movers say they would try a new provider/company for a new service.
These statistics are meaningful because they clearly show how valuable it is to market to new movers.
- New movers are 5x more likely to become long-term customers if you can reach them before the competition.
- The top items movers typically purchase within the first 12 months of moving are furniture/home decor, a TV, and appliances.
- Internet, utilities, and home security top the list of services new movers anticipate needing to find a provider for within the first 12 months of moving.
- 46% of movers say they use online research to research the types of business items they may purchase.
- Over three in ten (37%) movers utilize online customer reviews and recommendations from family/friends/neighbors.
- 80% of new movers redeem coupons from merchants before, during, and after the move.
- Hair and nail salons, hospital emergency rooms, auto repair, restaurants, service companies and retail stores are all big users of new mover lists.
- On average, new movers spend $8,068 on all items and services within the first 12 months of moving.
New Movers are easy-to-reach with Postcard Mailings
Most New Mover marketers opt for either weekly or monthly mailings to this very lucrative group. Postcard mailings are easy to do, with Dataman Group Direct’s new customizable postcard print and mail portal, myDMpostcards.com.
You might not be mailing to forty-six million new movers each year. The good news is that there are no minimums on myDMpostcards.com. You can actually mail to 250 new movers each week, if that’s what you wanted to do!
New Mover Trends from Wall Street Journal
I pulled this additional information out of a Wall Street Journal article on New Movers:
Over the 30 years that preceded the pandemic, globalization and technology had fueled a “knowledge economy” dominated by college graduates who clustered in big city metropolitan areas in the West and Northeast. Property values soared in those areas, while lagging behind in other areas.
The Covid-19 pandemic changed that dynamic.
“I almost feel like the pandemic differs from any other time I’ve seen. There’s definitely a flight to lifestyle,” said Chris Camacho, chief executive of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, a nonprofit consulting group that receives public and private funding and recruits businesses to Arizona. “Individuals were choosing where to live.”In a recent survey led by researchers at Stanford University, the University of Chicago and the Mexican university ITAM, about 16% of workers said they plan to stay fully remote, and another 31% plan to adopt a “hybrid” schedule of working in the office part-time and at home the rest. Most of those remote workers are well-paid, white-collar college graduates, according to the research.
One big reason so many people moved during the pandemic has been a desire for less expensive housing. This is according to an April report from the Economic Innovation Group, a think tank. By analyzing county-level census data, it found that large urban areas with high shares of commuters lost residents in the 12 months through July 2021. Among that group, large urban counties with the highest median home values experienced the biggest declines.
Small and medium-size cities, suburbs and rural areas all gained residents. This is mostly because they tended to have less expensive housing than large urban areas.
Are these New Mover households Permanent?
It remains to be seen how many of those moves turn out to be permanent. And, whether many recent migrants eventually move back to more urban areas. In recent months, some companies have been urging remote workers to return to the office.
In the 10 states that gained the most people from moves between April 2020 and June 2021, the typical home cost 23% less than the typical home in the 10 states that lost the most residents to moves, according to an analysis by the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.
The states that gained the most new movers levied an average maximum income-tax rate of 3.8% on individuals. Four—Florida, Texas, Tennessee and Nevada—charged no income tax at all. The 10 states that lost the most residents to moves have an average tax rate of 8.0%.
Now that more employees are leaving expensive markets or working remotely, employers themselves have more freedom to move to lower-cost areas.