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DENVER – Older Denver residents are being replaced by transplants who are younger, more educated and make more money, according to a new study.
The study, from home contractor referral site BuildZoom, looked at several demographic factors for inbound and outbound residents of major metro areas across the country.
BuildZoom’s analysis found that in the country’s most expensive cities – Denver included – people who are moving in from elsewhere in the United States tend to be younger, more educated and make more than those who are moving out, while the opposite was true in less expensive cities.
In metro Denver, the annual median income of people moving into Colorado was $52,588 versus $49,473 for those moving out and the average age of inbound residents was 38 while outbound residents were about two years older, according to BuildZoom. About 51 percent of new residents have a four-year college degree while the same is true for less than 48 percent of people leaving Denver.
The study also showed a difference in home ownership rates; people moving to Denver are less likely to own a home – 24 percent versus 27 percent – which the study’s author, Issi Romem, said is evidence of a so-called “transient class.”
“The pattern observed with respect to migrants’ age is consistent with the notion of a transient class, whereby individuals arrive in young adulthood to experience the life and career opportunities that expensive metros have to offer, and leave once they confront the realities of raising children in this environment,” Romem wrote.
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Colorado Springs, which is also seeing rapid growth and rising home prices, hasn’t seen the same kind of demographic shift as Denver, according to BuildZoom’s analysis. Data show that inbound migrants in Colorado Springs are also younger but they don’t have a higher level of education or make more money than those who have moved out.
In Fort Collins, transplants make about $6,000 less per year than outbound migrants and are about the same age, according to BuildZoom.
Read more at buildzoom.com.