Americans staying put, but those who move heading to no-tax states

The percentage of Americans who moved residences reached its lowest point last year in more than six decades, the Census Bureau said. Those who did transfer often relocated for employment reasons. Many moved to states with no individual income tax. Barely 1 in 9 people, or 11.6 percent, changed locations between 2010 and 2011, the lowest total since the government began tracking the figure in 1948, the bureau said. The percentage of Americans who moved has declined since 1985, when 20.2 percent relocated. “Although many of us still move over the course of a year, we are now less likely to do so,” Alison Fields, chief of the bureau's journey to work and migration statistics branch, wrote in a report. When people did move, it was mostly for employment-related reasons, according to one of four mobility-related studies released by the bureau. The government reported that 43.9 percent of people who moved more than 500 miles between 2008 and 2009 did so for work reasons. Only 11.6 percent of people moved long distances for housing. A separate study based on the American Community Survey showed the most common move between 2009 and 2010 involved 68,959 people relocating from California to Texas. California accounted for several of the most-common moves from one state to another. There also were 47,164 Californians who moved to Arizona; 39,468 to Washington; and 35,472 to Nevada. None of those three states have particularly high tax rates. Meanwhile, California has the highest taxe in the nation. The second most-common relocation involved 55,011 people moving from New York to Florida, the bureau said. Third were the 49,901 people moving from Florida to Georgia. Texas and Florida have no state income tax on individuals. RELATED ITEM States with the highest tax rates » In another study, the Census Bureau reported that a majority of Americans lived in their state of birth. Louisiana had the most home-grown residents at 78.8 percent of its population. Michigan was next with 76.6 percent; Ohio, with 75.1 percent; and Pennsylvania, with 74 percent. Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Nevada and the District of Columbia had fewer than 40 percent of natives living there. More than 3 of every 4 Nevada residents were born somewhere else, the highest percentage in the nation. --Bloomberg News--