Fewer Americans are moving to new homes today than at any time since the government began keeping track, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau, which found just 8.4% of Americans moved in the last year.
That’s the lowest rate of movement recorded at any time since 1948, the agency reported. That means that about 27.1 million people changed homes in the last year, also the lowest number in recorded history.
America’s aging population, coupled with the fallout from the Great Recession last decade and the ongoing pandemic, have all contributed to the country’s sedentary population, Cheryl Russell, author of the Demo Memo blog, said.
“The geographic mobility rate has been falling for decades, so it is no surprise that the current numbers are the lowest ever recorded. In fact, the U.S. has set a new record low in geographic mobility in every year since 2015-2016,” Russell said. “The trend is clear: Americans are increasingly likely to stay put.”
About one in five Americans moved homes in a given year between the 1950s and 1960s, Russell said. That dropped to 14% by 2000 and has fell further to just shy of 12% last decade.
The lack of movement has led to a reduced inventory of homes for sale, according to real estate website Zillow.
As people age, they tend to move less, and America’s falling birthrate, which stands at an all-time low, has meant that fewer people need to move, Zillow Senior Population Scientist Edward Berchick said.
All these factors has led to stiff competition for homes when they do come on the market, Berchick said.
“Despite low interest rates and an increased desire among renters to buy their next home, [Zillow data] suggests that homebuying became more challenging than past years. The typical buyer submitted two offers, up from just one offer that typical buyers consistently reported making [from 2018 to 2020],” he said.
First-time buyers also got more scarce: They represented 43% of buyers when surveyed in 2020, but only 37% in 2021.