Key Facts
The Growing Factor
When deciding where to locate, many families and businesses choose based in part on government policies. Businesses move to states where the cost of doing business is low. Families value affordable housing, good schools, and lots of job opportunities. States that provide both grow and flourish. This dynamic is front and center in current US migration trends.
A Higher Quality of Life
Some states, like Texas, are eagerly competing for new residents by adopting policies that attract employers and workers. Low tax rates and simplified regulations make it easier to do business and build new housing, which in turn provide a higher quality of life for workers and their families.
Should You Stay or Should You Go?
Other states are enacting policies that have the unintended side effect of encouraging people and businesses to leave. California, for example, has increased tax rates and passed regulations that make it expensive to hire workers, and has adopted stringent rules over the supply of housing that have driven up rent and home prices.
The Path Forward
What is the result of these policies? A steady stream of moving vans are leaving California and other states. To reverse this flow, states must prioritize economic policies that make it cheaper and easier to work and live.