Iowa ‘balanced’ in 2009 residential moves

For the second year in a row, the number of people moving into Iowa in 2009 was eclipsed by those moving out of the state.

Surveys by Allied, Atlas and United Van Lines showed a total of 2,418 household shipments leaving Iowa and 2,137 coming into the state.

All three surveys rated Iowa as “balanced” because at least 55 percent of the total number of shipments would have to be either inbound or outbound to classify the state as gaining or losing residents.

Over the last decade, Iowa had only two years where the number of inbound residential shipments topped outbound moves - 2005 and 2007. The state was classified as outbound early in the decade when inbound shipments were 250 to 300 less than those leaving Iowa.

David Swenson, an Iowa State University professor and researcher who focuses on regional economic changes, projects Iowa's outbound migration will continue.

“We value research and development in Iowa, but we don't do enough of it to offer opportunities to our younger residents,” Swenson said Thursday in Cedar Rapids. “People will go where they can find the jobs they want. We are not offering the employment opportunities they can find in other states.”

The annual surveys by the three major household movers provide a snapshot of a nation in the wake of an economic downturn, as relocations slow and the nation migrates to areas with low unemployment.

As job losses mounted with the severity of the national recession, rust belt states in the Midwest lost residents. Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and the nation's capitol, Washington, D.C., had the highest percentage of inbound household shipments in 2009.

Michigan, staggering under soaring unemployment with devastating job losses in the automobile industry, was highest in net outbound residential shipments, followed by Connecticut, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and California.

Residents are leaving Minnesota and North Dakota, an unusual trend because the latter historically has been inbound or balanced for more than a decade. Because unemployment is low in North Dakota, what's causing the shift is unknown.

As the economy cooled in 2009, so did household moves industrywide, according to the three companies.

United, the nation's largest household goods mover with headquarters in St. Louis, handled 143,194 interstate household moves in 2009, down from 198,962 inbound and outbound residential shipments in 2008.

Evansville, Ind.-based Atlas said its interstate and cross-border moves were down nearly 16 percent from 2008, when it carried shipments for 84,447 households. The total for 2009 was 71,301.

Suburban Chicago-based Allied hauled 59,381 residential shipments in 2009, down from 63,978 inbound and outbound household shipments in 2008.