The moving business is one amongst the foremost attention-grabbing and numerous business directions of the USA economy. Sadly, the depressive housing market situation in 2008 caused the extended period of all for national moving business. Nevertheless, within a couple of past years, the moving companies in USA has managed to recover. Taking into account the tight connection between these markets, this can be a good sign. Currently would be a decent time to analyze the situation with US moving industry in 2018 and make future predictions.
The basics of moving trade nowadays
Before speaking about the situation with the US moving business in 2018 it's needed to understand the main basis of this industry. Over 120,000 workers are employed in almost seven thousands companies providing moving services mostly for private home stuff and less often for enterprises.
Surprisingly but the main part of the transport industry doesn't belong to large corporations and companies. The main core of the moving sector consists of small, sometimes family operated, businesses. Less than 10% of companies employ over 100 people, while 45% have less than 5 workers. Despite such diversification, the annual income of the industry exceeded $12 billion mostly received from local and long distance moving companies. Packing and storage services give the small portion of all earnings.
This market segment is characterized by a high competition level due to providing almost the same services from various movers. Within the last years moving providers steadily started to use digital technologies, the Internet in particular. This way of finding and staying in contact with customers completely changed the transportation business quickly becoming the main way of clients' search. It can be stationed with certainty that clever and qualitative Internet market is among of the most important subjects of the moving industry nowadays.
Geography and seasonal moves
To be able to analyze the situation with cross-country moving in 2018 it is necessary to reveal the main from/to moving destinations, along with the main time of year people choose to relocate. In accordance with various researches made by several expert teams mostly people leave Northern and Northeastern states like Alaska, New York, Illinois, West Virginia, and New Jersey.
The main focus of their moves is sunny Southern states:
- Florida
- Colorado
- Georgia
- Nevada
- California
- Arizona
- Utah
This also causes rapid population growth of Sunbelt states compared to other parts of the country. Using professional long distance moving companies NYC for such long and complicated move is for sure the best option for saving customer's budget and nerves.
As for the most popular season for moving, the busiest time for moving providers is the end of spring and summer months. Most people prefer to relocate with a warm weather condition what makes period from May to September the most comfortable. Last weekends of each month are the time of maximal moving orders. This can be explained that most leases expiring exactly at the end of the month and the weekends are the only spare days people can schedule and arrange such large projects.
Segments of the population moving the most
Moving services conduct user surveys on an ongoing basis for a better understanding of their customers' needs. It happened so that after starting using Internet opportunities the average age of moving providers' clients is about 25-35 years. These people feel confident in the world of digital technologies in contrast to older people preferring old-fashioned contact options.
However, these researches discovered a kind of problem. The new generation of Americans moves less intensively than the previous ones. Probably the main reasons for such behavior are different opportunities and motivations. Homeownership being the main dream for many generations is no longer on top for the millennials buying far less property compared with their ancestors. Being busy with achieving completely other goals, as well as new lending regulations and restrictions made them different from their forefathers.
Nonetheless, that's not a reason for panic because according to the experts' opinion these are just natural fluctuations drove by numerous different factors. About 20% of Americans relocated in the middle of 80s of last century compared to slightly over 10% now. But the good news is that this number began to show light but steady growth this year. The main prediction for coming years is that it will continue to rise in this way making the moving industry even more demanded and profitable.
The future of US moving trade
With all the numerous trends influencing the moving segment it's possible to say that the general future perspective is positive. As it was said earlier, the housing market is directly connected to the moving trade. A steady rise in the population's income leads to increasing the number of property purchasing causing moving companies to work more. Also, recent reducing oil prices influence transport cost making it smaller. And this, in turn, will make moving services more affordable and attractive to customers.
Besides the things mentioned above, there are even more long-term factors like the trend of moving the rural population to the cities. This is a slow process which can last for decades, even centuries, but it nevertheless cannot be ignored. This is the main reason of growing metropolitan areas and appearing new business opportunities for moving industry as a result.
Also, the new direction, international moving, is rising and gains popularity. This is a vast scope for new activities promising good perspectives with a high revenue in the future.