Seeing a lot of moving vans around Capitol Hill, Ballard and Queen Anne?
You might have some new neighbors moving in.
A new study released this week by Allied Van Lines ranks Washington state as the sixth most popular moving destination in the country, with 468 net moves during 2014. Amazingly, that’s up from a rank of 32nd last year, according to the study. Washington state saw 2,081 outbound moves, and 2,485 inbound moves — surpassed only by Texas, Florida Arizona, South Carolina and Colorado.
Let’s just call this the Amazon-effect.
As we’ve reported on GeekWire, Amazon is growing like gangbusters, adding a whopping 40,000 employees globally in the past year. And it is showing no signs of slowing down in its hometown of Seattle, where it is said to now employ about 25,000 people.
On a recent trip to the South Lake Union neighborhood where Amazon is based, I counted no fewer than 10 construction cranes. Amazon’s real estate chief told a group of developers in Seattle last month that it will need 30 new residential buildings with at lest 200 units each in the coming years — equating to about 6,000 new residential units — in order to accommodate its growth in the Seattle.
In other words, a bigger wave of people may be arriving in Seattle in the coming years.
Amazon is certainly fueling what appears to be a boom town, though other fast-growing tech companies such as Zillow, Zulily and Tableau Software also are doing their part.
Here’s a look at the top 30 states, according to the study.
