January 25, we saw an item from the Washington Policy Center, by way of ShiftWA, that caught our eye.

Both the WPC and Shift serve roles reporting on and pursuing sound economic, business, and even educational policies in our state. Both take in-depth looks at legislation, business, and trends that most of the mainstream media doesn't.

The WPC reported one of the best ways to help determine if a state or region is experiencing growth or regression isn't just economic, business, or tax statistics: it's also U-Haul traffic.

 WPC reports the annual U-Haul "Migration Data" correlates with the economic, business ando other growth (or regression) of states and regions. It's no surprise to many that for a number of years, California has seen a massive exit of population, business, and industry. It's even affected the political makeup of such states as Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.

 U-Haul's Migration Data measures the number of one-way rentals into, and out of, each of the 50 states. The more one-way rentals into a state, the higher they rank on the Migration Index. 

The data comes from the just over 22,000 U-Haul rental hubs around the country. It includes all U-Haul moving units--trucks, trailers, etc.

Since 2016, CA has been ranked 48th or lower in U-Haul's data, meaning massive amounts of people leaving.

   Washington state was ranked 5th in 2019, but this year (2020 data), has plummeted to 36th. While the Tri-Cities and the rest of southeastern Washington have continued to grow (even during COVID) much of the metro west side has seen an excessive reduction. A lot of it began to pick up after the CHAZ-CHOP incidents in Seattle.

What we see and hear about in the news is reflected here.  CA came in this year 50th, Oregon was ranked 29th in 2019, has dropped to 45th.

The top 5?  From 5 to 1, they were: Arizona, Ohio, Florida, Texas, and Tennessee. 

For more on the U-Haul Migration Data study, click on the button below.

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