Texas State Capitol
Imagine a New York accent infused with a Texas twang.
That’s what’s happening as New Yorkers flee to the Lone Star State, according to exclusive new data from the Center for an Urban Future.
The Center analysis shows a jump in New Yorkers moving to Texas cities like Dallas and Austin.
For example, in 2005, IRS data reveals that 328 New Yorkers relocated to the Texas county including Austin, but as of 2010, the most recent data available, that number jumped 96 percent to 643.
And many Brooklynites are moving their plaid shirts and cowboy boots south — according to the Center, the number of borough residents moving to Austin jumped 170 percent, from 83 to 224.
Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston also showed increases – Manhattan residents moving to Tarrant County, which includes Fort Worth, increased 110 percent, from 51 to 107.
“People are moving down here in unbelievable quantities,” Austin real estate broker Angele Moyseos told Metro.
“They just want a different quality of life,” she added. “It is hard to live in New York. It is not that hard to live other places.”
Transplants follow jobs, the warm weather or simply a change of pace, she said.
About 60 percent of New Yorkers who moved shifted to southern states between 2000 and 2009, according to the Empire Center for New York State Policy.
And Texas is courting New Yorkers on a public scale – Attorney General Greg Abbott sponsored ads in January wooing gun-loving New Yorkers.
Lawyer David Miller, 34, was born and bred in Midtown Manhattan. But he “jumped at the opportunity” in 2011 to relocate to Houston when his wife was pregnant.
“Everything is much cheaper,” he said. “Things are just easier generally.”
Now, he said, “We throw the kid and the dog in the yard and everyone’s happy. You can’t do that in New York. We had a small yard in Brooklyn, but it was tiny. It was a postage stamp.”
Moyseos, 41, herself moved from Astoria to Austin in 2008, wanting better green space and schools.
Now, she helms a Manhattan Mafia meetup group with more than 200 New York transplants (sample post, “Fuggedabouit Y’all”). She gets a new request for the group about once a week.
“It was always a dream for me to move to New York, and I think New York has a shelf life,” she said. “I think if you’re from somewhere else, it is sometimes difficult to stay there for the long haul.”
Southern draw
In a separate report the Center issued, other cities picking up New Yorkers included Atlanta and Charlotte. Paul Berardi, 51, a real estate agent in Charlotte, moved from Long Island in 1995 and said he has since seen a growing community of NYers. “You just run into New Yorkers day in and day out,” he said. “You see the New York license plates, the Yankees stickers on the back windshields.”
Whether to stay or go
A Marist College poll in 2009 revealed 36 percent of New Yorkers younger than 30 planned to leave within five years. In that poll, people said that taxes, cost of living and difficulty finding jobs were all reasons to get out of town. And in a new study out this month from moving company United Van Lines, New York is the fourth likeliest state for people to flee for 2013.
NYC in TX
New York favorites have made the trip south, too. Home Slice Pizza in Austin offers “authentic NY-style pizza” by the slice or pie. The owners take workers on a pizza tour of New York every year, Moyseos said. And the Brooklyn Brewery started offering their brews in the state in 2011, which they celebrated with a tapping parting in Dallas.
