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

The percentage of Americans who changed residences reached its lowest point last year in more than six decades, according to the Census Bureau. Those who did move often relocated for employment reasons, and many went to states with no individual income tax. Barely one in nine people, or 11.6%, changed locations in 2010-11, the lowest total since the government began tracking the figure in 1948, according to the bureau. The percentage of Americans who have moved has declined annually since 1985, when 20.2% 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 migration statistics branch, wrote in a report. Most moves were for employment-related reasons, according to one of four mobility-related studies released by the bureau. The government reported that 43.9% of people who moved more than 500 miles in 2008-09 did so for work reasons. Just 11.6% of people moved long distances for housing. A separate study based on the American Community Survey showed the most common move in 2009-10 was from California to Texas (68,959). California accounted for several of the most common moves from one state to another. Some 47,164 Californians moved to Arizona, 39,468 to Washington and 35,472 to Nevada. None of those three states has particularly high tax rates. California has the highest taxes in the nation. The second-most-common relocation was from New York to Florida (55,011), according to the bureau. In third place was the 49,901 people moving from Florida to Georgia. Texas and Florida have no state income tax on individuals. 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% of its population. Michigan was next with 76.6%, Ohio with 75.1% and Pennsylvania with 74%. Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Nevada and the District of Columbia had fewer than 40% of natives in residence.