PODS survey - Where Are People Moving to in 2024? Hint: There’s Been a Shift!

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

I see them dropped on the street.

You can't do that in Chicago.

Private property or nothing.

Some cities will apparently provide permits to street park a POD, but Chicago isn't one of them.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

You can't do that in Chicago.

Private property or nothing.

Some cities will apparently provide permits to street park a POD, but Chicago isn't one of them.

Ah, yeah, you can get a permit for one in St. Louis City if you can physically get one set on the street.

[PhillyRising]

I always see PODS in front of houses being remodeled...at least here in Chester County, PA in which nobody is moving out....because houses for sale are few and far between.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by JManc

But it's indicative of just how popular the Carolinas are. Perhaps POD people prefer Myrtle Beach but Charlotte, Greenville and the Research Triangle are also booming.

My parents lived in SC for 13 years (2007-2020). The growth of Horry County/Myrtle Beach area was impressive. The traffic near the Beach "Grand Strand" became nightmarish on long weekends.

Here's Horry County, SC growth
Not Texas or Florida quick but certainly quick for a small State like South Carolina (~5.4M ppl). It's only a matter of time before it's the 2nd largest county in SC (after hhnc's Greenville), surpassing both Charleston and Richland (Columbia-State capital) counties.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horr...South_Carolina

[AviationGuy]

Originally Posted by JoninATX

Austin is a bit odd. It's hard to imagine people leaving with all these new residential towers coming online soon. Jobs are still being announced and construction is still booming in the metro area.

I'm assuming this doesn't mean "net" loss. As far as I know, Austin's population is still growing, and units in those new towers are quickly being bought or rented. As for PODs, most people don't use them. So their trends aren't necessarily applicable to overall trends.

[jmecklenborg]

Originally Posted by photoLith

^
Or Texas for that matter now. I'm from Houston and my parents live in San Antonio pretty much. Every year I go there its well above 100 during the summer. Last year when we visited it was above 100 every day and one day it got to 107. No thanks.

Because people from the north who complain about the cold to justify a move to the south are all couch creatures. They're going to move to Texas or Florida and just sit in the AC watching TV all day before driving to a restaurant, then back to their couch for another 4 hours of netflix and chilling in the AC.

The whole Tennessee/Carolinas thing is because people want to be within an easier 1-day drive of their families in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, NY, etc.

As a former resident of Tennessee, I can assert that the summer and winter weather isn't substantially different than much of the north. You have to go all the way up to the actual shoreline of the Great Lakes and even north of New York City to experience a significantly colder winter or significantly hotter summer.

Drive from St. Louis or Columbus or Indianapolis down to Nashville any day of the year and the highs/lows are almost exactly the same. It's almost like the use of the term "south" and "north" has convinced a huge chunk of Americans that there is actually some sort of strict line of demarcation between "warm" and "cold". Instead of accepting as fact just how wet, gray, and dark Nashville is during the winter, they'll vilify the pointer-outer of that fact.

[hauntedheadnc]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Myrtle Beach is tiny. It's unlikely to even have the largest numbers of move-ins in its own state, let alone the country.

City populations in South Carolina are always deceptive. State law more or less forbids annexation, so city populations stay small even as their sprawl balloons. In Greenville for example, probably about eighty percent of what people think of as "Greenville" is not actually in the incorporated City of Greenville.

Populations:

Myrtle Beach -- 35,682
Horry County -- 351,029
Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach MSA: 447,823

I mean, ask yourself: Could a city of only about 36,000 people support an international airport the way Myrtle Beach does? And could that airport have served as the main hub for Hooters Air in the early 2000s the way Myrtle Beach International did? Of course not! You need a sizeable metropolitan area of spectacular trashiness to pull off a feat like that!

Other fun comparisons that make people think South Carolina cities are much smaller than they actually are:

Charleston -- 150,227
Charleston County -- 408,235
Charleston MSA -- 813,052

Columbia -- 136,632
Richland County -- 416,147
Columbia MSA -- 837,092

Greenville -- 72,824
Greenville County -- 558,036
Greenville-Anderson-Greer MSA -- 958,958

Spartanburg -- 39,040
Spartanburg County -- 356,698
Spartanburg MSA -- 383,327

Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson CSA -- 1,590,636

[Crawford]

SC is huuge among conservative-leaning upper middle class white Midwestern boomers. It seemed to have replaced Gulf Floriduh as the promised land (with the equivalent Northeasterners taking the Atlantic side).

Charleston area, especially, seems like the destination for the more upper class leaning, and Myrtle Beach area for those leaning into the Honey Boo Boo demo.

[jmecklenborg]

Originally Posted by Crawford

SC is huuge among conservative-leaning upper middle class white Midwestern boomers. It seemed to have replaced Gulf Floriduh as the promised land (with the equivalent Northeasterners taking the Atlantic side).

Charleston area, especially, seems like the destination for the more upper class leaning, and Myrtle Beach area for those leaning into the Honey Boo Boo demo.

Hilton Head Island is both wildly popular and wildly boring. It unfortunately has the effect of attracting tons of people from the Great Lakes region away from...the Great Lakes. Where it's relatively cool throughout the summer, meaning you can do things outdoors all day long.

It's like, people used to travel north for summer trips (or up in altitude, to Highlands, NC, for example). Instead, they now travel from their air conditioned homes to southern locales where they need even more air conditioning. After lumbering out to the South Carolina beach at 1pm they head back to the air conditioning at 2pm and take a nap until it's time to go out to a restaurant.

[Crawford]

Yeah, I've been to Hilton Head, and don't get it. It's obviously very hot/humid, but also the beach is mediocre and there's little surf. There also isn't much history or much of anything beyond vacation homes and condos.

Marco Island, in FL, gives me similar vibes. More tropical and bigger, but the same "why are all these people here" vibes.

[DCReid]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

Because people from the north who complain about the cold to justify a move to the south are all couch creatures. They're going to move to Texas or Florida and just sit in the AC watching TV all day before driving to a restaurant, then back to their couch for another 4 hours of netflix and chilling in the AC.

The whole Tennessee/Carolinas thing is because people want to be within an easier 1-day drive of their families in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, NY, etc.

As a former resident of Tennessee, I can assert that the summer and winter weather isn't substantially different than much of the north. You have to go all the way up to the actual shoreline of the Great Lakes and even north of New York City to experience a significantly colder winter or significantly hotter summer.

Drive from St. Louis or Columbus or Indianapolis down to Nashville any day of the year and the highs/lows are almost exactly the same. It's almost like the use of the term "south" and "north" has convinced a huge chunk of Americans that there is actually some sort of strict line of demarcation between "warm" and "cold". Instead of accepting as fact just how wet, gray, and dark Nashville is during the winter, they'll vilify the pointer-outer of that fact.

Part of the Tenn/Carolina thing is that many retirees move to FL and then determine that it is too hot and humid or too far from their relatives up north, so they move 'half-way' back. A lot of the retirement articles tell potential retirees considering the FL move of this prospect. And as someone mentioned, SC is popular with conservative people, and I suspect TN is as well.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by hauntedheadnc

City populations in South Carolina are always deceptive. State law more or less forbids annexation, so city populations stay small even as their sprawl balloons. In Greenville for example, probably about eighty percent of what people think of as "Greenville" is not actually in the incorporated City of Greenville.

Populations:

Myrtle Beach -- 35,682
Horry County -- 351,029
Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach MSA: 447,823

I mean, ask yourself: Could a city of only about 36,000 people support an international airport the way Myrtle Beach does? And could that airport have served as the main hub for Hooters Air in the early 2000s the way Myrtle Beach International did? Of course not! You need a sizeable metropolitan area of spectacular trashiness to pull off a feat like that!

Other fun comparisons that make people think South Carolina cities are much smaller than they actually are:

Charleston -- 150,227
Charleston County -- 408,235
Charleston MSA -- 813,052

Columbia -- 136,632
Richland County -- 416,147
Columbia MSA -- 837,092

Greenville -- 72,824
Greenville County -- 558,036
Greenville-Anderson-Greer MSA -- 958,958

Spartanburg -- 39,040
Spartanburg County -- 356,698
Spartanburg MSA -- 383,327

Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson CSA -- 1,590,636

Granted, South Carolina doesn't have much in the way of a true big city yet, but Myrtle Beach metro is still just way too small to have the largest raw population growth in the country. Rounding error range growth in any of the larger US metros would be more people than the entire population of the Myrtle Beach metro area. Houston's metro area averaged growth of 120k per year between 2010 and 2020. There's no way that Myrtle Beach is adding even half of that in a year. They'd be quickly overwhelmed by that type of growth.

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Granted, South Carolina doesn't have much in the way of a true big city yet, but Myrtle Beach metro is still just way too small to have the largest raw population growth in the country. Rounding error range growth in any of the larger US metros would be more people than the entire population of the Myrtle Beach metro area. Houston's metro area averaged growth of 120k per year between 2010 and 2020. There's no way that Myrtle Beach is adding even half of that in a year. They'd be quickly overwhelmed by that type of growth.

In case you missed the post, the list is based solely on PODS customer moving data.

[jmecklenborg]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Yeah, I've been to Hilton Head, and don't get it. It's obviously very hot/humid, but also the beach is mediocre and there's little surf. There also isn't much history or much of anything beyond vacation homes and condos.

It has no history, no town, no nothing. If you don't like golf and don't like the beach there is pretty much nothing to do but watch TV in the air conditioning. I was down there a few years ago for a wedding and my brother and I spent a night watching early 1990s COPS reruns...since there aren't any bars or live music or anything to do at night.

During peak season the traffic is absolutely terrible since there is only one way on and off the island.

[jmecklenborg]

Originally Posted by DCReid

Part of the Tenn/Carolina thing is that many retirees move to FL and then determine that it is too hot and humid or too far from their relatives up north, so they move 'half-way' back.

The worst part of all of this mindless vacationing and retirement moving is the terminology. The "snow birds". The "half-backs". These people could be invested in the social lives of their home neighborhoods - church, schools, volunteering, etc. - instead they're watching TV 500+ miles south.

Another thing is that Atlanta is relatively close to the Tennessee state line. This means for everyone coming down from Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, etc. - they get to Atlanta and think that they're "halfway" through Georgia. Nope. They've still got hundreds of miles of Georgia before they get to the Florida line. At which point they still have hours to go.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by bilbao58

In case you missed the post, the list is based solely on PODS customer moving data.

Exactly. Which would have different customer data than U-Haul or the largest professional moving companies.

That being said Horry County, SC (Myrtle Beach area) is growing quickly and has picked up the pace dramatically.

1980-1990: +42,634 or ~4,200/yr
1990-2000: +52,576 or ~5,200/yr
2000-2010: +72,662 or ~7,200/yr
2010-2020: +81,738 or ~8,100/yr

2020-2023 est: estimated +46,449 or ~15,400/yr (or almost double the growth pace of the 2010s)

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by hauntedheadnc

City populations in South Carolina are always deceptive. State law more or less forbids annexation, so city populations stay small even as their sprawl balloons...

Myrtle Beach -- 35,682
Horry County -- 351,029
Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach MSA: 447,823

I mean, ask yourself: Could a city of only about 36,000 people support an international airport the way Myrtle Beach does? ...

Other fun comparisons that make people think South Carolina cities are much smaller than they actually are:

Charleston -- 150,227
Charleston County -- 408,235
Charleston MSA -- 813,052

Columbia -- 136,632
Richland County -- 416,147
Columbia MSA -- 837,092

Greenville -- 72,824
Greenville County -- 558,036
Greenville-Anderson-Greer MSA -- 958,958

Spartanburg -- 39,040
Spartanburg County -- 356,698
Spartanburg MSA -- 383,327

Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson CSA -- 1,590,636

Great breakdown of South Carolina for the SSP layman

[Crawford]

I'm blown away that Greenville now has around 1.6, while Buffalo has around 1.1. What a weird country. And Dallas is generally the MSA/CSA with the largest annual growth.

My lifestyle preferences definitely don't align with U.S. norms.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by Crawford

I'm blown away that Greenville now has around 1.6, while Buffalo has around 1.1. What a weird country. And Dallas is generally the MSA/CSA with the largest annual growth.

My lifestyle preferences definitely don't align with U.S. norms.

Years ago at a once popular seasonal dive bar near the Lake Erie beaches of southern Ontario (35 minutes from the Buffalo border) I met a young woman whose family was all originally from Buffalo.
They had moved when she was in middle school to Greenville, SC. When I asked why her parents moved from Western NY (this was 2002? So they moved in the early 1990s) she said "Buffalo is dying, Greenville is booming".

Now finally 2 decades later Buffalo/Erie county/Western NY is scraping off some of the rust from the belt and experiencing a resurgence of sorts.

Crawford, Buffalo based M&T Bank has now moved up to the 16th largest bank in USA, ahead of Key Bank from Cleveland, Fifth Third from Cincinnati, Huntington from Columbus among many others
https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/lbr/current/

[ChiSoxRox]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

Another thing is that Atlanta is relatively close to the Tennessee state line. This means for everyone coming down from Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, etc. - they get to Atlanta and think that they're "halfway" through Georgia. Nope. They've still got hundreds of miles of Georgia before they get to the Florida line. At which point they still have hours to go.

Indeed, measuring from the center of the terminal layout, ATL is the same distance (596 miles straight line) from DTW and MIA.

(MDW is 591 miles, ORD is 606 from ATL)