That's what I love about these transplants, man. I get more credentialed as a long-term resident, they maintain the same sense of unbridled enthusiasm about everything.
A new report from Abodo that among 50 metropolitan areas, Denver ranks second when it comes to new people moving in and also ranks second when it comes to people moving out.
First, some methodology notes. Someone who moves out of metro Denver into another county counts as a lost resident. That means moving to Boulder counts, even if you still come in on the weekends.
Also, this study uses the one-year estimates from the American Community Survey. That data is good for large populations, but best used when "currency is more important than precision," according the Census. That is, it's up to date, but it might not show the full picture.
Tax return data, by contrast, shows that while people are moving here, they are doing so at a slower rate than in years past.
Ok, ok, so what does it mean to be a metro area that's both losing and gaining residents? Does it indeed suggest that "cities such as ours are replacing longtime residents who can no longer afford to live in these places with those who can," as 5280 observed?
Zillow would support that notion. Their work has found that cities with the most renters trying to move in and out have affordable housing problems.
Furthermore, people willing to move long distances tend to have higher income households moving within a metro. For Denver, renters looking to move into the city make $12,000 more than local renters, according to Zillow's analysis of median incomes.
