It keeps getting rarer for Americans to move to a new place

Historically, one of America's economic strengths has been that it's really big and there's usually some better opportunity somewhere else that you can move to without needing a special visa or how to speak a new language. But Americans are moving less and less, and this helpful analysis from Jed Kolko at Trulia clarifies that the decline is concentrated in people who are actually switching counties as opposed to simply shifting into a new house in the same basic area:

(Jed Kolko/Trulia)

One natural question is why is this happening? One theory is that the lack of moving is an effect of reduced economic gains from moving. People would move to opportunity if they could, but there's no opportunity to move to. My theory is the opposite — people don't secure the gains of higher-wage economic structures in the Seattle, San Francisco, Boston, New York, and Washington areas because a lack of affordable housing makes it impractical to move there.

We're here to shed some clarity

One of our core beliefs here at Vox is that everyone needs and deserves access to the information that helps them understand the world, regardless of whether they can pay for a subscription. With the 2024 election on the horizon, more people are turning to us for clear and balanced explanations of the issues and policies at stake. We’re so grateful that we’re on track to hit 85,000 contributions to the Vox Contributions program before the end of the year, which in turn helps us keep this work free. We need to add 2,500 contributions this month to hit that goal. Will you make a contribution today to help us hit this goal and support our policy coverage? Any amount helps.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via