Moving? Most Americans say they regret doing it

SALT LAKE CITY — According to a  survey by real-estate brokerage Home Bay, conducted on Dec. 29, 2022, 75% of Americans who moved regretted it. Dave & Dujanovic discuss moving and regrets.

In December 2022, 4.1 million workers left their jobs, bringing the total for the year to over 50 million. But by February, 8 out of 10 professionals who left their jobs regret their decision, a new Paychex study finds, according to CNBC.

“All of you grass-is-always-greener folks that are like, ‘Oh, if I could just change jobs. If I could just have a new home.’ ” Dave pointed out.

“Well, these are things you can’t keep your receipt for, either, and just return to the store with the next day, right?” Debbie said.

Where people move and why they regret moving

• The survey by Home Bay found the most popular state people moved to in 2022 was Florida, while the state people most often moved from was California. Texas was the second-most popular state for Americans on the move while North Carolina came in third.
• The five top reasons Americans move:

       1. Better quality of life — 24%
       2. Lower cost of living/home prices — 23%
       3. Upsizing (i.e., a bigger home) — 22%
       4. Work flexibility (i.e., working remotely) — 22%
       5. To live closer to friends/family — 21%

Debbie pointed out that No. 3 is a double-edged sword because more space equals less time.

“You get time back because you don’t have all those rooms to clean,” she said.

• 19% of survey respondents said moving was too much of a hassle.

“You’re gonna give up six months of your life to do it right,” Debbie said, having just moved.

“When you have to move, maybe you have to replace the carpet or replace the shingles or you have to patch the wall,” Dave said.

“Getting the house ready to show even in a crazy seller’s market. You don’t want somebody to walk in and have the fireplace hanging down,” Debbie said.

“Don’t even get me started on moving — like the actual physical moving of the piano. For example, there is basically no amount of money that makes moving a piano worth it,” Dave said.

She has no regrets about moving

• It was too expensive, 17% of survey respondents said about moving.

Debbie said she paid movers $1,000 because she couldn’t fit all her stuff in her car.

“I had to hire movers because you were unavailable — mysteriously,” she said to Dave.

“You got out for 1,000 bucks. You must have thrown away a lot of stuff.”

“I did. I gave away a lot of stuff.”

Dave is almost an empty-nester. He has too much house now, but says he’ll probably stay, in light of the current conversation.

Debbie said she is among the 25% in the survey who DO NOT regret moving. She said she moved because she wanted less space and thus, more time.

“I’d had a yard for 30 years that I had maintained like you do,” she said. “My list every day when I left here included running home and doing something to the yard or snow blowing the driveway or cleaning a bedroom or cleaning a bathroom.

“It’s not like that anymore. It’s super-amazing and super-weird all at the same time because I grew used to having so much on my plate to just maintain my home — and all that stuff has gone now,” she said.

Read this:

Most Americans have regrets about moving

2023 Data: 75% of Americans Have Regrets About Moving

 

Dave & Dujanovic can be heard weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon. on KSL NewsRadio. Users can find the show on the KSL NewsRadio website and app, as well as Apple Podcasts and Google Play.