Although Americans’ well-known wanderlust seems to be on the wane — in 1951, 21 percent of Americans moved to a new house but in 2003 only 14.2 percent did so — there is a growing faction fueling long-distance moves. They’re called amenity migrants, people who transplant themselves because they’re attracted to a location’s environmental or cultural qualities.
Moving purely for lifestyle reasons is a modern phenomenon. For most of our country’s history, resources and jobs have dictated migration.
“Earlier settlers skipped across the country in search of better farmland,” explains Cary de Wit, a geography professor at University of Alaska in Fairbanks. “When we evolved into an industrial society, manufacturing plants drew people. Now we’re in a post-industrial phase where the biggest part of our economy is not about manipulating materials, but working with information and services, which makes it less tied to a specific location.”
In 2001, 41-year-old Dan Miller left Boston and moved his family to Sarasota, Fla. “Boston winters are brutal,” says Miller, who wanted a warmer climate. An entrepreneur who had just sold his second software company, Miller was ready for a change of pace as well as a change in climate. Instead of starting another high-growth company and working 80 hours a week, he wanted to pursue consulting and investing.
The Millers researched various cities in the Southeast, mid-Atlantic and Southwest. “Sarasota really matched up with our interests,” Miller says, explaining that he and his wife prefer biking and running to skiing and hiking. Other attractions were top-notch schools — the Millers had recently become parents — and a strong arts community, the legacy of circus magnate John Ringling, who made Sarasota his winter home.
Four years later, Miller has no complaints, even with last summer’s bout of hurricane activity. “These storms come with the territory,” Miller says. “The tradeoff is the other eight months of beautiful weather.”
Although retirees comprise the largest group of amenity migrants, younger lifestyle movers like the Millers are increasing in number.
Greater affluence is one reason. Either through inheritance or their own efforts, more Americans have deeper pockets to fund their dreams about where they live. And advanced telecommunications not only allows people to work from far-flung places, it also helps maintain family ties.
“It used to be we didn’t move away from our kin. That was” one of our primary values, says Susan Blansett, an economic development consultant at R&M Resource Development in Golden, Colo. “Yet family has become less of an anchor because we can communicate more easily today. We’ve cut free of strings that held us to a certain place. We want to live where we want to live,” she says.
Who’s more likely to become an amenity migrant? People who haven’t been afraid to move before.
“Moving begets moving,” says Kevin McHugh, a geography professor at Arizona State University, noting that long-distance migration requires a certain mindset. “For many voluntary movers, this involves cultivating an `image of elsewhere’ as a place of opportunity — and then possessing the resources and skills to act upon and realize the opportunity,” McHugh explains, noting that if someone moved once and the outcome was positive, it increases their likelihood of moving again.
“If you’ve lived in the same place all your life, you’re not likely to move away because you’ve invested financially, emotionally and psychologically,” says Curt Roseman, a retired geography professor of the University of Southern California.
While familiarity and “place ties” can anchor people, they also influence migration. “If you move away, you’re more likely to move to a place you’re already familiar with, or where you have friends or a place with which your friends are familiar,” Roseman says. “You move where you have more established connections.”
Indeed, vacation homes often serve as a prelude to permanent migration. “Vacation homes allow people to experience a place without uprooting completely,” McHugh explains.
Affluent lifestyle movers are often welcomed into communities because they bring disposable income and can create a demand for new services and create jobs. At the same time, newcomers can put tremendous pressures on ecosystems and may want to change the character of the community.
“If communities don’t have planning in place, then growth can happen helter-skelter,” Blansett says. For example, new retail may open on the edge of town, to cater to newcomers, and hurt downtown merchants. Also, amenity migrants frequently inflate housing prices and property taxes, which can irritate native residents.
There are also cases of “gangplank” or “last settler” syndrome, where newcomers want to stymie growth.
“When urban refugees move to rural areas, they often have romanticized ideals of what the community should be like,” says the University of Alaska’s De Wit. “New England gets hit with this because there’s such a strong stereotype of what a New England village should look like. If something comes along that the locals want, like a new factory that will create badly needed jobs, urban refugees may protest because it doesn’t fit their image of a New England village.”
But amenity migration can also prove disappointing to those who move.
Catherine Wells moved to Portland, Ore., in 2001, after spending 11 years in Atlanta. “We wanted a place that was cleaner than Atlanta, but still had cultural things to offer,” she explains. Because her husband was able to telecommute and Wells was confident she would find a job, the couple sold their Midtown Atlanta house, packed their belongings and headed for Oregon.
Initially, Portland appeared to be the nirvana Wells was seeking. The city’s pristine environment, low traffic volume and moderate temperatures were a pleasant contrast to Atlanta’s pollution, gridlock and hot, humid weather. Other pluses were Portland’s penchant for recycling, an abundance of bicycle paths, access to locally grown food and “the absence of mosquitoes,” says Wells, who grew up in Birmingham, Ala.
But there have also been significant drawbacks. A graphic designer, Wells found a job quickly when she arrived, but was laid off five months later due to a decrease in the company’s projects. She got another job, but that also proved short-lived because the company was in the process of being sold. “I’ve never had a problem finding a full-time job before,” says 39-year-old Wells, who is now freelancing and thinking about moving back to the Southeast.
Another surprise has been the attitude to newcomers. “At times, the community seems a little closed,” Wells explains, adding that much fanfare is made over being a native Oregonian. The phrase shows up everywhere from bumper stickers on cars to ads run by tradesmen. While job searching, Wells has even seen “native Oregonian” appear in managers’ biographies on company Web sites.
Yet for other amenity migrants, geography may have been the initial attraction, but community becomes the reason for staying.
Last year Tina McGovern left her home in New York to put down roots in Swansboro, N.C. McGovern and her husband had owned vacation property near Swansboro for many years and wanted to live there year round. Because full-time jobs in the printing industry were difficult to come by, the couple decided to launch their own company, International Minute Press, in Jacksonville, N.C.
Although McGovern is making less money than she could in New York, she now has more control over her time, which allows her to be involved in her new community. “The people are fabulous,” says 60-year-old McGovern, who is active in her church and local business groups. “You don’t feel like an outsider for very long.”
Similarly, Miller has a higher level of community involvement since moving to Florida. For example, he now serves as a board member of the Economic Development Corporation of Sarasota County and co-chairs the Sun Coast Technology Alliance. City size is one reason, Miller explains: “There’s more opportunity to have impact and a voice here than in Boston.”
But he also links it with community attitude. “People are much more open here,” Miller explains. “It’s easier to make new connections than in the Northeast, probably because 90 percent of people here are transplants themselves. That openness alleviates some of the stress involved in leaving a place you’ve been for a long time.”
