BOSTON — There has been a growing trend in Massachusetts since the pandemic hit. More and more people are moving out of the state according to the country’s census bureau.
At the same time, the data shows fewer people coming here.
Gentle Giant Moving & Storage has been busy for years helping people move into their new homes. But Vice President of Operations, Patrick Inman, says many of those new homes have been outside Massachusetts. “New Hampshire was definitely the top state for demand for people that we were servicing,” said Inman. “It’s a lot cheaper to live there. Less expensive and a lot of people are living and staying and working from home.”
According to numbers pulled from IRS change of address data between 2019 and 2020 — more than 20 thousand Massachusetts taxpayers moved to New Hampshire and more than 19 thousand to Florida. When you have a lot of people leaving one state and not coming back into it, experts tell us there is a concern for the economy.
Dr. Mark Melnik is the Director of Economic and Public Policy Research at the UMASS Donahue Institute. He explains that over the past 25 years — the state was losing population overall at about 25-30 thousand per year. But the most recent years, including 57 thousand this past year, is jaw-dropping. “Any time you are seeing a decline in population or flat population growth it really highlights where there might be some concerns for your ability to fill critical roles and for business to grow,” said Melnik. “For us to have a strong economy, it is going to be important for us to attract and retain workers to this region.”
Deric Lipski is a realtor who is seeing the impact first hand. “One out of every three deals I have is probably leaving out of state,” said Lipski. “It effects my income because I used to be able to sell their house and then sell them a house, now I get less.”
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