From the Asbury Park Press:
The exodus of New Jerseyans for warmer, less expensive climes is likely to cost the state some clout in Washington. New Jersey is still adding residents, but the growth — a mere 0.2 percent in the year ending July 1, 2006 — continues a downward trend that has seen the state of 8.72 million people drop out of the Top 10 to No. 11. When it comes to divvying up congressional seats after the 2010 census, New Jersey may lose one of its 13 seats and, as a result, a vote in the Electoral College.
The report from the U.S. Census Bureau last week should be must-reading for the governor and legislators. It provides further fuel for calls to make this state more affordable.
In the past year, about 72,000 New Jerseyans have moved to other states, bringing down the growth to only 21,410. Only four years ago, the annual growth was almost 1 percent and only about 25,000 were moving out. The 0.2 percent this past year makes New Jersey the 39th slowest in population growth.
The winners are Arizona and Nevada, with the fastest growth at 3.6 and 3.5 percent, respectively. Four of the Top 10 are in the South: Texas (2), Florida (4), Georgia (9) and North Carolina (10).
The reasons for the move-outs are invariably the same: the high cost of living here, the job picture and the weather. New Jersey’s leaders can’t control the climate. But they can control the number of taxes and the spending that makes them so high. They can pass laws and set policies to make housing more affordable. They can create an environment that encourages businesses to locate here or expand their facilities and to take advantage of the state’s highly educated work force. So far, the Legislature’s record in addressing these issues is abysmal.
The state’s failure to reverse this downward spiral may affect the political map in 2011 when the congressional districts are apt to be redrawn to divide the state into 12 parts instead of 13. Whatever the political party makeup, one less vote in Congress is important. The loss in clout would result from a failure of leadership in Trenton to make sure New Jersey is a place where people can afford to live. The census figures should tell them that right now, it is not.
I was talking to my BiL yesterday. He says that North Carolina is targeting NJ industries for relocation to NC. Biotech especially.
BTW, he says that Cary, NC is not only a huge destination but is also getting a nickname
C- Containment
A- Area for
R- Relocated
Y- Yankees
Metro,
I visited Cary in October. We didn’t hear 1 person with a Southern accent in Cary. It seemed like everyone was originally from NY or NJ.
We are seriously considering relocating. We will decide around this time next year. It depends on how things look here.
Metro,
I visited Cary in October. We didn’t hear 1 person with a Southern accent in Cary. It seemed like everyone was originally from NY or NJ.
We are seriously considering relocating. We will decide around this time next year. It depends on how things look here.
I like Cary. I could see myself living there.
How is NC targeting NJ industries for relocation? What incentives, etc?
We moved our NJ facility out of state earlier this year. At one time that site put over 700 NJ residents to work, now it puts a similar number of DE residents to work.
Aside from the lower labor, tax, and leasing costs, we receive very favorable treatment from the local and state governments.
Governor Minner is a frequent visitor.
jb
I know 2 families moving south next year, 1 to North Carolina, 1 to Florida.
Both putting houses on market in Spring.
And just to be clear – I don’t know many people.
I think everybody in the northeast has either been to Cary or knows somebody who lives in Cary. We were visiting our friends who lived there (also from the northeast, originally) and on our way out of town we stopped by a little pizza shop. We chatted with the waitress who was heading back to PA (where we were going at the time) and found out she lived about 10 minutes from where we grew up.
And as another anecdotal story – I work for a small financial management firm (~$2bln AUM) and they are desperately trying to get out of NJ. Between the taxes and cost of living, we could all be “making” (as in, “also not having to spend”) much more money if we could relocate across the river to PA.
A little anecdote about NJ towns supporting businesses.
About 7 years back, business was booming. We had approximately 700 employees working three shifts, and we were growing fast. As a result, we were running out of parking. We leased additional parking spaces from the neighboring business, but even that wasn’t enough. Our facility bordered residential areas, in a typical high-density Northern NJ style. Employees began to park on the neighboring streets, simply because it was closer than the leased parking, and because it was easier than driving from lot to lot to try to find parking.
The neighborhood wasn’t happy, within a few weeks the entire neighborhood was “permit parking only”, including the streets our facility was located on. For the first month we had what seemed like our own local police officer. Tickets were handed out readily.
We pleaded with the town, they didn’t care.
It was about that time that we began planning our exodus.
Most of our buildings still stand vacant.
jb
I think there’s a lot of hype about how good the job market is in the south. If you look at Monster.com for positions in Raleigh or Atlanta, there’s not that many. I work as a computer systems analyst. I did a quick non-scientific survey of jobs there in comparison to state populations. New Jersey actually had a significantly higher number of job openings in relation to its population, as compared to that of North Carolina and Georgia. It’s great if you can get a job there, but I’ve heard it’s not that easy. I know if I put my resume on the street here, I get plenty of calls. Any resume I’ve ever sent to Atlanta was a big black hole in terms of response.
Good. Time to send a strong signal to the NJ criminals, crooks and lackies.
x-underwriter,
Same here. This is just anecdotal, but I get the distinct impression that IT workers in NJ/NY ‘move around’ a lot more than our peers in North Carolina. Another impression I have, again based purely on anecdotes, is that the IT employer base in this area is weighed heavily towards consumers of IT products and services, while the employer base in NC has a higher proportion of actual producers of IT products and services.
…AKA, “the government”. Mismangement at its finest. Department of Health and Education. What are they doing but helping to make costs sky-rocket faster than inflation rate? LMAO
During my stay in the Denver, CO area, you would be surprized how many people I have met from the east coast area whom have left to Colorado. A great many.
I have met many from the NJ/NY area whom have relocated. The number # 1 reason they have moved? Taxes & housing.
You would be shocked at what 200,000 could get you out here.
Try a nice house with a 3 car garage.
Alot more bang for your buck.
SAS
If you like Jackson NJ you’ll love Cary. Same vibe. I couldn’t live in either place.
In the last 3 years housing has nearly doubled in Cary as well, so there are no bargains down there anymore. If you got in 3 years ago, and could pick up a nice property for $250K, that would be a strong incentive. But today that same property is near $500K.
“And just to be clear – I don’t know many people.”
LOL!
UnRealtor,
Look further out in places like Apex, Holly Springs, Wake Forest.
syncmaster Says:
“the IT employer base in this area is weighed heavily towards consumers of IT products and services, while the employer base in NC has a higher proportion of actual producers of IT products and services.”
I agree. Raleigh is a lot of high tech scientific companies. If you’re in that line of work, there’s jobs galore. Otherwise, it’s just another southern city. I’m working on loan origination systems in the mortgage industry. We have both here, software companies and their clients. Things are getting really dicey in this industry now, even in IT. No suprise though if you’ve been following this board. Time to get completely out of anything real estate related.
Let the people leave, and then the prices will go down as demand goes down. I thinks its a big mistake to build on every last square inch of land so that the prices go down. However, we do need to fix the corruption and cut gov’t jobs and benefits so the taxes go down.
By the way I hear the best pizza to be found in NC is in Cary. But I would bet everyone already figured that out. ;)
unfortunately, blue state residents who are escaping taxes and dem corruption in blue states keep voting for dems in the purple states. Soon these states are blue state with all the predictable consequenses re taxes, crime rates and corruption.
Anyway, this doesn’t matter. We’ll have soon 100 million new low-income citizens thanks to the upcoming amnesty to illegalos. THis country is going to be a liberal far-left tax paradise ala Cuba.
JB, gratz on relocating to DE, they’re pretty business friendly down here I have to say. My corp is building a large facility to accomodate growth in IT at the expense of NYC and the NYC/NJ waterfront area.
Gotta enjoy not paying sales tax on that new HDTV as well ;) On the downside: drivers here are worse than even NJ, and Comcast still is the local monopoly until Verizon begins their rollout of FiOS this quarter (fingers crossed!).
BTW, Iron Hill Brewery at the Riverfront or in Newark (that’s “New Ark”, they _will_ correct you) is some good eats and beer.
This is a great blog!