USA Today’s Haya El Nasser and Paul Overberg report on how the combination of the crisis alongside longer-run economic and demographic trends are reshaping America’s economic landscape. The once booming Sun Belt is taking it on the chin.
The housing collapse and economic crisis are dramatically transforming the population and political landscape of the nation by ending the Sun Belt boom that dominated growth for a generation, according to Census Bureau estimates released Monday.
For the first time since the early 1970s, more people left Florida for other states than moved in during the 12 months ending July 1. Nevada, among the four fastest-growing states for 23 years in a row, slipped from No. 1 to No. 8. Michigan lost people for the third straight year.
The housing meltdown has turned migration flows on their heads. Of the top 20 fastest-growing states, all but four showed slower growth this year compared with last year and only one of the top 10 (Colorado) grew faster, according to an analysis by William Frey, demographer at the Brookings Institution.
“A giant share of it is housing,” says Robert Lang, co-director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech. “One, you can’t sell a house. You’re stuck. Two, there’s no job growth attracting people to those states.” Lang says every previous recession had one thriving state or region that lured people. This time, no place is immune.