Anyone planning to change their residential address between now and Oct. 1 had better book a moving company well in advance.
Scheduling is vital in moving at this time of year, says Richard L. Russell, president of Mayflower Transit Inc., because nearly two-thirds of people moving do so between May and October. People who wait too long may have to settle for their second or third choice in a mover.
”Don`t put off calling a mover until the last minute,” Russell said.
”If you`re buying a new home and selling your present home, call in your mover as soon as the first deal is closed,” Russell said. ”Don`t wait until both deals are closed. You can always change your moving date. But get the mover in and let him make the estimate as soon as possible so he can be prepared to schedule your move to meet your needs.”
Another reason to plan ahead with moving is that after several years of standing still, great numbers of Americans are on the move again. According to Mayflower`s projections, 50 million U.S. residents will leave one abode for another this year.
Moving activity had been 20 percent or higher from the 1950s until it declined substantially between the 1970s and early 1980s. In 1985, however, that trend reversed. The percentage of people who moved annually dropped in the `70s to about 16 per cent, and continued at that pace through 1984.
U.S. Census Bureau figures for 1985, the last year available, show the mobility rate rising to 20.2 percent compared with 17.3 percent the year before.
Russell said that activity level held in 1986 and 1987, and predicted new records for the industry in 1988 in the number of shipments and in revenues.
”Housing starts have remained at a high level and a large inventory of new housing translates into a chain reaction of moving,” he said, adding that corporate moves also were on the rise. Seventeen percent of moves are inter-state.
”Unless interest rates suddenly get out of control and the bottom drops out of the real estate market,” he said, ”we see a pattern of slow, steady increase in moving activity for the next two or three years.”
