More people moved to City of New York than left last year

1st time in several decades

Jay Blazek Crossley, Nov 22, 11.

For the first time in several decades, more people moved to the City of New York than moved away last year, according to the New York Times:

For the first time in several decades, more people moved to the city last year than left it, according to census data.

While much of the city’s population growth in recent years has been fueled by the influx of immigrants and more people being born than dying, there have been new waves of arrivals from other parts of the country and fewer New Yorkers leaving. In 2010, 252,000 people moved to New York — 157,000 from elsewhere in the country — while 220,000 left, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. That contrasts sharply with 2006, when 230,000 arrived and 341,000 left.

The economy has been a factor in the movement in both directions. Some people coming to New York are economic refugees from places, like the Rust Belt and the Southwest, hit worse by the recession and still struggling to recover. For those people, New York offers a chance to start over.

In 2010, as an example, more people moved to the city from California, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Oregon than left the city for those states — reversing a trend.

Meanwhile, some New Yorkers find themselves stuck here, unable to sell their homes in a depressed real estate market. In past recessions, by contrast, many New Yorkers fled to other parts of the country, particularly the Sun Belt, where real estate was cheap and job opportunities abundant.

New Yorkers are also moving to the suburbs in smaller numbers than in the past as the lure of owning a home has lost some of its appeal.