If you can’t sell your house, you can’t move. It’s as simple as that. And it’s one of the reasons more people are staying in New Jersey. Census data shows that the Garden State had an outward migration of 67,000 residents in 2010.

While the housing market may be partially to blame, the so-called “promised lands” are struggling even worse. “In places like Florida and Arizona, the housing markets have completely tanked so it’s very risky to move there at this point in time,” said Rutgers Economist James Hughes.

“Some of the destinations simply aren’t as attractive as they were four or five years ago and that causes people to stay in place,” said Hughes. “It’s not only the housing markets in those locations, but the job markets as well.”

More than 42,500 people moved from New Jersey to Pennsylvania last year, while 22,000 people left Pennsylvania for New Jersey. About 41,000 New Yorkers moved to New Jersey, while 35,000 New Jerseyans went to the Empire State.

The lack of mobility wasn’t only a factor in New Jersey, but nationwide. Mobility throughout the U.S. has declined substantially over the past five decades according to the data. The percentage of people who moved from 2010 to 2011 was 11.6%….the lowest since such statistics were first collected in 1948.

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