In a Lockdown Year, Americans Moved --- Big cities lost residents, suburbs gained, retirees went south as priorities shifted

"The pandemic has spurred a burst of mobility that is accelerating changes in where and how Americans live.

Some young people are leaving cities earlier than is typical, while some older people are speeding up retirement moves. Fewer newcomers are giving cities a try, meaning the people moving out aren't being replaced by fresh residents.

Suburbs are emerging as the winners from these changes, marking the end of a decadelong growth trend for big cities. Companies intent on lowering overhead and retaining talent are opening offices there, and developers are adding amenities to keep entertainment dollars local.

In the largest cities, the changes are helping erase billions of dollars of annual property tax revenue and fueling double-digit decreases in rents. In 2020, higher-income neighborhoods lost more residents to migration than lower-income neighborhoods.

With many companies signaling openness to remote work after the pandemic ends, cities are bracing for a future where spending on public transportation, lunches and other drivers of the urban economy don't return to pre-pandemic levels.

Nationwide, the South, especially Florida and Texas, added households, while the Northeast lost them. Early results of the 2020 census, pegged to April 1, 2020, and released this week, don't reflect most of the coronavirus pandemic's effects.

A Wall Street Journal analysis of U.S. Postal Service permanent change-of-address data through 2020 provides the clearest picture yet of how millions of domestic moves during the pandemic supercharged demographic shifts.

Americans migrated toward less-dense, more-affordable areas as they sought more space and, in some cases, became untethered by the ability to work from anywhere.

Big cities including New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Boston saw hundreds of thousands more residents move out than in, in changes they labeled permanent, causing the net loss of households from migration to widen by 71% in 2020 from the previous year. New York City saw more net moves out last year than it did during the two prior years combined.

The suburbs of large metropolitan areas captured much of the outflow. Net new suburban households from migration rose 43% in 2020 from the prior year, helping swell the counties surrounding Dallas, Indianapolis, Nashville, Tenn., and Charlotte, N.C., among others.

Smaller metro areas, including Salisbury, Md., Colorado Springs, Colo., Allentown, Pa., and Boise, Idaho, also experienced sharp net increases in newcomers. So did vacation destinations from the Grand Strand of South Carolina to the red-rock mountains of southwestern Utah.

In big-city suburbs -- which added more new households than smaller metros and towns combined -- developers are capitalizing on the shift. They are investing in walkable "surban" master-planned communities that feature fresh-air spaces, fitness facilities, local food and other amenities that ease newcomers into suburban living, said Chris Porter, chief demographer at John Burns Real Estate Consulting in Irvine, Calif." [1]

1. In a Lockdown Year, Americans Moved --- Big cities lost residents, suburbs gained, retirees went south as priorities shifted. Campo-Flores, Arian; Overberg, Paul; De Avila, Joseph; Findell, Elizabeth. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]28 Apr 2021: A.1.