Mobility in America Part 2: What Motivates People to Move
September 8,
2017 by Jane Chero in General 
With Mobility in America at an all-time historical low and only 11.2 percent of people moving from 2015 to 2016, what drives the current movers and leads them to change residence? This is the first factoid in series of four factoids that explores the “why” people have moved since 2000 and takes note of both the growing and declining trends.
Major Reasons to Move
For 42.2 percent of the 35.1 million movers from 2015 to 2016, the biggest reason to move continues to be a desire for new or different housing. Recovering from the recession, job related moves are back up to just over 20 percent of movers since 2006-2007. Meanwhile, over a quarter of American movers (27.4 percent) changed residence last year due to a change in family status
Age of Movers
Young adults ages 20 to 29 dominated all categories for reasons to move in terms of numbers of adult movers -- the principle reason for moving being housing-related (3.7 million movers). These young movers are starting new households, moving into their own apartments or homes or changing residences for various reasons. Job-related moves also dominated this age group more than any other with 3.0 million moving for employment reasons.
For adults 30 to 44 (a 15-year age span), housing-related moves were by far more important than any other category (3.6 million movers) and almost double employment reasons.
Adults 45 to 64 (20 year span) are a large part of the U.S. population and contain a chunk of baby boomers on the back end. However these older adults were most likely to stay put with 2.4 million movers citing housing-related reasons for moves and only 1.1 million moving because of jobs.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplement