Practically every presidential election cycle, diehards proclaim that if their party nominee doesn’t win, they’re going to move to another country.
As it turns out, the outcome of the latest election showed more people saying they would stay in the same general area where they now reside, and not abandon the country after all.
Of the 40% of Americans who are considering a move this year, according to the latest LendingTree survey, 48% say the local political climate is the chief reason they’d seek greener pastures.
“Politics might not seem like a good enough reason to prompt a move. But while some political disagreements are trivial, others aren’t,” Senior Economist Jacob Channel said in a statement.
“If you find the political climate in your area is making you feel unsafe or limiting your ability to live a healthy and productive life, that’s a valid reason for trying to go someplace else. If you need to spend more to live in a community that accepts and is tolerant of your lifestyle and beliefs, that could be a worthwhile investment,” Channel added.
For the survey, LendingTree polled 2,031 consumers in late November, shortly after the presidential election. Given the outcome of that election, Democrats are most likely to cite politics as an incentive to move. But Republicans are not far behind.
Of the potential movers, 58% of Democrats said the political environment was a factor, while half the Republicans said the same. At 36%, Independents were the least to be persuaded by politics to move.
Digging a little deeper, respondents were asked if the presidential election results made them more likely to pick up and go elsewhere, and 41% answered in the affirmative. At the party level, 48% of Democrats said yes, as did 42% of the Republicans, and 43% of Independents.
Where would they go? Only 2% would move out of the country and just 8% would relocate to another state. Rather, 21% said they’d remain in their current metro area. Only 10% would go to another city within their current state.
Politics, of course, isn’t the only reason people are considering changing places. Indeed, only 4% said they’d rather live in a Democratic or Republican state, 2% each.
Instead, the primary reason for considering a move (26%) is that the respondents’ current houses are too small. After that, the two most popular factors are the desire to live in a place with a lower cost of living (23%) and the wish to live closer to loved ones (23%).
On another front, a large majority of those surveyed in the report are feeling safe in their current locations. Similarly, most said they and their families have access to adequate healthcare where they live.
Still, 11% of respondents said they don’t feel safe where they reside, and 62% of those said they'll seek to move because of it.
“On one hand,” said economist Channel, “these figures are encouraging. On the other hand, it’s worth acknowledging that safety and security aren’t universal.”
