Baby boomers and young adults are in a holding pattern

by YankeeJim | June 23, 2010 at 11:01 am

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Stay put, I guess. The trouble is that as you get older, approaching a more fixed income, you can’t afford to live in a community where people are earning more and more, and the cost of living continues to increase. You cannot stand still and survive.

Needed in America, and elsewhere, are retirement communities that cater to fixed income people. One of the drawbacks is that everyone tends to be older, and get older and older. It’s not much fun when everyone is old.

Older people need some stimulation. A crying baby, an unruly kid need to create a disturbance once and awhile. Older people need to see a change in the crowd too sometimes.

Anyway, the story here is about how people are leaving cities where the jobs are no more. I read that in Detroit they are tearing down old houses and turning lots back into fields for farmers. It is safer and doesn’t look so bad as all of those empty houses.

Manufacturers tend to look to the “Right to Work” states for locating. There are 22 of those. It never made complete sense to have all of the automotive production in the north and Midwest. It’s cold and the weather is bad. Southern locations might be better.

“Census: With Jobs Scarce, Manufacturing Cities Decline
By Hope Yen, Associated Press Writer
Manufacturing.Net - June 22, 2010

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hurt by the still-sluggish economy, Rust Belt cities and other U.S. manufacturing regions are suffering the biggest population losses as people search elsewhere for jobs.

New census estimates for 2009 highlight the continuing effects of the recession on the nation's cities.

The figures show Cleveland had the largest numerical decline in residents, dropping 2,658, or nearly 1 percent. It was followed by Detroit, which lost 1,713 people, and Flint, Mich., down 1,382.

Other losers include Baltimore, Buffalo, N.Y., and Pittsburgh, as well as the Florida cities of Cape Coral and St. Petersburg, two retirement destinations on the Gulf Coast. They declined as older Americans stayed put in California, the Northeast and Texas.

"Many baby boomers and young adults are still in a holding pattern," said Mark Mather, associate vice president at the nonprofit Population Reference Bureau. "They are staying close to big cities where most jobs are located, waiting for the economy and housing market to bounce back before they make their next move."

The numbers reflect an overall trend in which jobs have become a predominant factor in U.S. migration as the government winds down its high-stakes 2010 census count. Growth in once-torrid regions in the South and West such as Arizona, Nevada and Florida is slowing due to the housing crunch, while many big cities are gaining as they hold onto more residents.

In all, four of the 10 fastest-growing cities in 2009 were in Texas, which saw substantial population gains due to a stronger labor market and immigrant growth. Frisco, a bedroom community outside of Dallas, ranked at the top, growing 6.2 percent to 102,412 people. Other Texas gainers were McKinney, Round Rock and Lewisville, increasing between 3.3 percent and 5.5 percent.

In contrast, growth in Phoenix, Atlanta, Albuquerque, N.M., Las Vegas and Jacksonville, Fla., slowed by as much as 2.4 percentage points since 2006. Those cities were victims of a foreclosure crisis that made it harder for new residents to move in.”