What’s up everyone?
In a recent study by United Van Lines, more people left Maryland than moved to this state in 2021. So where are they going? And why are they moving out of Maryland? And who are “They” exactly? In this video, we’ll go through it all and figure out why people are quitting Maryland.
Let’s just dive right in.
If this is your first time visiting my channel, my name is Caryn Gardiner and I’m a local real estate agent here in Maryland, DC and Va and we talk about all things real estate including neighborhood tours, pros cons and what’s happening in today’s housing market. If this is of interest to you, go ahead and subscribe to this channel so you don’t miss any upcoming videos.
So first let’s look at how many people are leaving Maryland.
According to the United Vans study, More people LEFT Maryland permanently than moved INTO the state in 2021- 48% came in and 52% moved out.
And according to movebuddha.com, Maryland ranked #7 on the least popular states to move to as of mid year 2022
So why are people leaving Maryland? Let’s go through the top 5 reasons for why people are leaving Maryland and then we’ll show you where they are going.
1. Job Opportunities
According to the study by United Van lines, 39% of people leaving Maryland do so because of better job opportunities or job relocation prospects.
Although Maryland has one of the best job markets in the U.S., ranking 43rd in terms of the unemployment rate, with the newer trend of remote working, people are moving to places with a lower cost of living.
I guess this makes sense. If you can live somewhere less expensive because you can work from home, and maybe get a bigger house with one or more home offices, I can see why leaving Maryland makes sense.
2. Taxes
The second most common reason people choose to leave Maryland is because of the tax situation. I’ve mentioned taxes in some of my other pros cons videos on Maryland so this doesn’t surprise me.
Maryland taxes aren’t great. Maryland bases income taxes on personal income and implements a statewide tax.
Personal income tax of 2 percent begins when you earn more than $1,000 of taxable income.
It increases up to 5.75 percent on incomes that exceed $250,000.
The statewide sales tax is 6 percent.
In addition to the personal income tax and sales tax, pensions, IRA’s, and 401Ks are also taxable in Maryland.
Its also the only state with both an estate and inheritance tax but that doesn’t apply to everyone in every situation so check with your accountant.
The estate tax threshold for Maryland is $5 million as of 2021. This means that if you die and your total estate is worth less than $5 million, the estate owes nothing at all to the state of Maryland.
But like I said, please confirm with your accountant on all of these tax matters!
3. Retirement
The 3rd highest reason people choose to leave Maryland is to retire somewhere else.
As I said earlier in Maryland, pensions are taxable, which is not great for retirement so those with pensions may choose to retire somewhere else.
Also, many people who retire look for a state with a lower cost of living. Since Maryland has a high cost of living, many retirees may find it hard to live a lifestyle they want because they have limited funds to spend on living day-to-day.
So I can understand why people would leave Maryland for a state where your money goes farther.
I hope to travel around the world when I retire, what do you guys want to do?
4. Cost of living
As I already mentioned, Maryland is an expensive place to live. Some parts of Maryland are more expensive than others. If you look at this chart by bestplaces.net, you can see that Maryland costs 13% more than the US average, mostly because of Housing.
Where I specialize in Montgomery County, it’s even more expensive. If you look at this chart which compares Montgomery County to the rest of Maryland and then the US average, you can see that the cost of living is quite high.
ESP Housing. In Montgomery County, bestplaces.net gave us a 195 score compared to the US average of 100.
Yikes, maybe its time to consider moving!
A girl can dream, but thats all it is right now- not retiring any time soon sadly!
5. Traffic
Well, we are a small state (42 biggest) with a lot of people (over 6 million) so there is definitely a lot of traffic here.
And with a lot of traffic, it makes for long commute times. We got a little relief the past 2 years from the pandemic as far as traffic but now we’re back in full force and the traffic is really bad.
Im not sure thats a reason to leave the state but some days when its really bad, I do dream of open roads
So, now that we’ve gone over the top 5 reasons people are leaving Maryland, lets see where they are going and who exactly is leaving.
According to allied.com’s migration data study, the top 5 destinations Maryland residents are moving to are:
- Sarasota, FL
- Atlanta, GA
- Los Angeles, CA
- Tampa, FL
- West Palm Beach, FL
While I can understand the Florida cities – better weather, (unless you like all 4 seasons like I do), much better taxes compared to Maryland and probably less expensive – esp for retirees, and I guess I understand the Atlanta option if you want warmer weather but still want to be in a city… but Los Angeles?
I was surprised about this choice. It’s more expensive and has higher taxes. I lived in Los Angeles for 9 years before returning to Maryland and it was great but I really missed the fall leaves changing and snowy days with hot chocolate.
What do you think? If you are thinking of leaving Maryland, would you pick one of these 5 places?
Or if not one of these 5, where would you move to? And why? Comment below.
Now lets look at who is exactly leaving Maryland
According to the united van lines study, approximately 57% of those moving were over 55 which makes sense for all of the retirement reasons we already went over. Another 28% were between 35 to 54 years old and 14% were 18-34 years old.
And as far as incomes, 47% make $150,000 or more, 25% make $100,000-$149,000, 11% make 75k-$99k, and 16% make up to 75k.
So the pattern I’m seeing is if you have a lot of money and are of retirement age, maybe leaving Maryland makes sense.
I love this state so I don’t think I’ll be moving anytime soon but it is interesting to see why people are leaving and where they are going.
There are a great many reasons to move TO Maryland so if you are thinking about moving here, check out my pros cons video on Maryland and if you would like our help to make that move as seamless as possible, just send me and email, we’ll set up a zoom and well get you started.
I hope you got some value out of today’s video. It kind of made me sad that people are leaving Maryland but I do get it when it comes to retiring and wanting to live your best life.