US finds big drop in Hub population

US finds big drop in Hub population - The Boston Globe

It's tough to see Boston with a % drop equal to that of Flint, Michigan, the city made famous by Michael Moore's movie "Roger & Me" (but that was 1989, maybe Flint is nicer now)

Boston lost 30,107 residents in the first half of this decade, a precipitous drop that ranked the city among the biggest population losers of any major municipality in the country.

But Boston officials insisted that the way the Census Bureau estimates the number of housing units, in particular, fails to take into account that the city rehabilitates many of its old buildings, rather than demolish them.

In May, a Globe survey of 524 people who left Massachusetts last year showed the top reasons people gave for moving was a better job, followed by the cost of housing, family ties, and the weather. A majority of those surveyed also reported they were very satisfied with life in their new state and would not move back.

Economists said that the high cost of housing in Boston, compared with other US regions, is one of the main reasons people are leaving the city for more affordable housing outside the state.