Virginia has been losing population to domestic out-migration for the past five years. Most people (including me) have assumed that the reason for the exodus (well, not really an exodus, more of a drip… drip… drip… leakage) can be attributed to sub-par economic growth. In other words, more people are leaving than coming because more jobs are being created elsewhere than here.
But the latest data from United Van Lines calls that assumption into question. United’s data roughly tracks that of the Internal Revenue Service taxpayer change-of-address data in noting that for every 100 moves in and out of Virginia 53% were outbound compared to only 47% being inbound.
But get this: Two-thirds of the reasons cited for moving into Virginia were jobs, while only a little more than half were so cited for moving out. The widest outbound-over-inbound gap was for retirement, the second widest for family. Virginia also suffered smaller gaps for health and lifestyle.
Why would there be such a large retirement gap? Our 5.75% top income tax bracket? Hellish traffic in Northern Virginia? Too many polar vortexes? Perhaps readers can chime in with their speculations.
