Latest news with #SouthernAppalachian
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Where people are moving most in 2025 — and where they're leaving
The Brief Myrtle Beach/Wilmington ranks as the top move-in destination for the third straight year. California and Florida dominate the list of most moved-from cities in 2025. North Carolina has five cities in the top 20 for move-ins, more than any other state. After five years of shifting housing markets, remote work reshuffles, and climate-driven decisions, Americans continue to relocate in large numbers—but where they're heading is changing. According to the 2025 PODS Moving Trends Report, the Southeast has emerged as the dominant draw, while megacities and coastal hubs are seeing a steady exodus. The data, drawn from PODS' long-distance move records between January 2024 and March 2025, reveals both long-term migration patterns and newer surprises—including a continued rise in Southern Appalachian towns and a steep decline in Florida and California's appeal. By the numbers The Carolinas and Tennessee top the list of move-in destinations, thanks to their affordability, access to nature, and smaller-city charm. The Myrtle Beach, SC/Wilmington, NC, region ranked No. 1 for the third consecutive year. Here are the top five cities for move-ins: Myrtle Beach, SC/Wilmington, NC Ocala, FL Raleigh, NC Greenville-Spartanburg, SC Dallas-Fort Worth, TX Also notable is Raleigh's rise from 20th place in 2023 to 3rd in 2025, and Dallas-Fort Worth's return to the list after falling off in 2024. North Carolina dominates with five cities in the top 20, while Tennessee follows closely behind with four—including Knoxville, Chattanooga, Nashville, and Johnson City. The other side California remains the state with the most outbound moves, with seven cities in the top 20 for move-outs. Los Angeles tops the list for the fourth year running, followed by the San Francisco area and South Florida. The top five move-out cities are: Los Angeles, CA Northern California (San Francisco Bay Area) South Florida (Miami metro) Long Island, NY San Diego, CA Tampa Bay, FL, joins the move-out list for the first time after previously ranking as a move-in hotspot—an indication that Florida's population boom may be reversing due to soaring costs and natural disaster risks. Big picture view A mix of affordability, climate resilience, job growth, and lifestyle shifts continues to shape where Americans are headed. The PODS report notes: Cost of living: Median home prices in North Carolina ($331,800), South Carolina ($298,000), and Tennessee ($319,300) remain well below the national average of $361,300. Rent prices: All three states average roughly $200/month less than the national rental average of $1,750. Taxes: Tennessee and Florida both offer no state income tax, appealing to retirees and budget-conscious movers. Climate risk: Natural disasters in California and Florida—especially wildfires and hurricanes—have driven many residents to seek more stable regions. What's next California's high housing costs, extreme weather events, and taxes continue to push residents out. Seven California cities appear on the move-out list, with median mortgage payments nearing $5,500/month and the cost of living 50% above the U.S. average. Florida, once a top destination, has lost momentum. The state's average home insurance premium is expected to reach $15,460 by the end of 2025, while home prices have jumped 60% since 2020. Tampa Bay's debut on the move-out list suggests that both newcomers and long-time residents are reconsidering their options. What they're saying PODS noted that smaller cities with outdoor access and lower costs of living have grown increasingly popular with young professionals, retirees, and families alike. "Despite ever-changing economic and lifestyle factors, we're beginning to identify ongoing moving trends," the company noted in its 2025 Moving Trends Report. PODS emphasized that familiar patterns are returning after years of disruption, with smaller, affordable cities in the Southeast and Sun Belt drawing the most interest from movers nationwide. Why you should care Whether you're planning a move or just watching how America is reshaping itself, the 2025 data offers clear signals: the Carolinas and Tennessee are on the rise, while places like California and South Florida are losing their shine. If inflation, job flexibility, and quality of life remain top concerns, these trends could define relocation patterns for years to come. The Source This article is based on the 2025 PODS Moving Trends Report, which analyzes net long-distance moves using customer data from January 2024 to March 2025. Additional housing and rental market data was sourced from Zillow and RentCafe, while broader economic context was drawn from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and Public Policy Institute of California.
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Southern Appalachia waterways ranked #3 on ‘America's Most Endangered Rivers' list
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) – A national non-profit organization that tracks rivers all over the country has announced the rivers of Southern Appalachia are now among the most endangered in the nation, according to their analysis. The report by American Rivers cited five problems that 'need to be addressed' in Southern Appalachia waterways, including unsafe dams, environmentally damaging debris, the prevalence of infrastructure on floodplains, erosion and economic development. The report found that 44 dams in the Southern Appalachian portion of America 'failed or were severely damaged', and that storm debris is compromising the water quality throughout the region. 'That's why we're shining a light on the rivers of Southern Appalachia,' Erin McCombs, director of the southeast conservation division for American Rivers, said. 'To make sure that we have the federal resources to remove storm debris, to make sure that we can remove unsafe dams that were damaged during the storm and that people can be ready for when the next storm comes.' TVA spokesperson Scott Brooks said, luckily, the Nolichucky Dam was not one of those 44. 'The Nolichucky Dam had a record amount of water go over that dam, and the dam performed as expected. It's still standing. No major damage to the dam itself.' In fact, Brooks told News Channel 11 that the entire integrated river system his area did exactly what it was supposed to do during Helene's flooding. 'We started the week or two before the storm when we saw it was coming,' Brooks said. 'We reduced some of those reservoirs even further to maximize the storage. So it's an integrated river system that we manage so that no one reservoir has to take more of the brunt of a storm, like Helene, than others.' 'Overall, I think we can certainly tell the public that the integrated system performed as it was supposed to and we were able to alleviate, if not mitigate, a lot of the damage. The damage could have been much worse, had we not had this system in place.' The report also mentioned compromised water quality as a result of debris. ETSU Associate Professor of Geosciences Ingrid Luffman said that's a real concern, considering how much infrastructure has been built along the rivers. 'The concern [is], there is pathogens, particularly E. coli in the water,' Luffman said. 'Some of it can stay resident on the soil. It can absorb into the soil. When the stream floods, then all that sediment deposited on the floodplain can retain some of those chemicals or some of those pathogens.' Luffman told News Channel 11 that her concern moving forward lies with the cleanup process itself. 'The woody debris that's been trapped on the stream banks is important to remove,' Luffman said. 'But what they're observing is the trees that are still alive are also being cut down. And worse yet, the root balls are being removed. So now the banks have become even more destabilized in those areas. And I yeah, I don't know if that's a need to, you know, a need for education, that this is not the right way to clean up from the flood, really.' McCombs said the organization she serves hopes the report will continue to raise awareness for flood relief, not just in our area, but for all of Southern Appalachia. 'We all need clean, safe water for our families, no matter where we live or what we look like,' McCombs said. 'And most of our water comes from rivers, which also provides crucial habitat for fish and wildlife. You know, our economy, farms, and cities all depend on rivers for growth, and rivers give us ways to connect with nature and each other.' The full report can be found below: RiversofSouthernAppalachiaMER2025Download Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
01-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Gold Dome Nuggets: Cornbread baked in state code, pronoun triggers and get along little DOGE
Sen. Josh McLaurin, a Sandy Springs Democrat, held up a photo of the Doge meme that became popular in 2013 and is the namesake of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. Jill Nolin/Georgia Recorder This week's serving of Gold Dome Nuggets may contain traces of cornbread, Brunswick stew and 15-year-old funny dog pictures. Plus, should students read about plus-size women of color posing nude to increase their self-esteem? Let's dig in. If Georgia were an insect, what kind of insect would it be? That's an easy one – the honeybee, the official state insect, as designated by the Legislature in 1975. But how would one express the concept of Georgia as a fish? You could go with the official state fish, the largemouth bass – the obvious choice. But what about Georgia's official state saltwater fish, the red drum? Or the mighty Southern Appalachian brook trout, the state's official cold water game fish. Every day, state leaders make weighty decisions like how to encapsulate Georgia's rich history in a butterfly (the tiger swallowtail) or how to instill every Georgian heart with pride in the form of a folk dance (square dancing). But while Georgia has an official prepared food — grits — the state has no official state bread. Dalton Republican Rep. Kasey Carpenter wants to correct that oversight, and he's revived a bill that would enshrine cornbread as Georgia's official state bread. Carpenter shepherded a cornbread bill through the House in 2024, but it failed to get a vote in the Senate. (EDITOR'S NOTE: we used every cornbread pun known to mankind last year, so that's why there aren't any here.) 'It's back, baby, it's back, it's a reunion tour,' Carpenter said from the House floor Wednesday before the vote on this year's bill. The House approved elevating cornbread to the state's latest symbol 157-4, but not before peppering Carpenter with questions. 'Is it also a possibility that we could label any cornbread not made from the state as foreign cornbread?' asked Dawsonville Republican Rep. Brent Cox, a reference to a recently-passed bill requiring restaurants to label imported shrimp (the official state crustacean). 'I don't think we're gonna go that far,' Carpenter said with a laugh. Marietta Democratic Rep. Mary Frances Williams tossed out a cultural hand grenade: 'Can you answer the age-old question that has caused many a family break-up and fight: do you or do you not add sugar to cornbread?' she asked. A consummate politician, Carpenter tried to play to both sides. 'I do add a pinch of sugar,' Carpenter said. 'I think if you study the history of cornbread, the corn used to be a lot sweeter than it is now once they started mass producing.' Cornbread was not the only Southern delicacy to earn special distinction from the House Wednesday. Rep. Rick Townsend, a Republican from Brunswick, presented a bill to name Brunswick stew Georgia's official state stew. 'It goes with many things, whether it's biscuits, crackers, and especially cornbread,' Townsend said. 'It's delicious stew.' Not everyone agreed with Townsend's assessment. Macon Democratic Rep. Miriam Paris displayed a surprising amount of antipathy toward the tomato-based stew. 'Is it not true that if you took a poll in here today, that this bill would lose?' Paris asked. 'If you took a poll in here today, would it not be that 51% of these people would say they don't like Brunswick stew?' 'It would still be the best stew in Georgia,' Townsend said. As it turns out, they did take a poll. The House voted 152-2 to make Brunswick stew the official state stew, with Paris and Dallas Republican Rep. Joseph Gullett opposed. Paris did not respond to a request for comment. A Q and A on a bill in a Senate Committee Thursday started with a question about the presenter's pronouns. 'Let me start off with a couple of questions. What's your pronoun?' asked Senate Higher Education Committee Chairman Max Burns, a Sylvania Republican. 'Your majesty or your highness,' said Tyrone Republican Sen. Marty Harbin. 'That's interesting,' Burns said with a laugh. 'Does that question offend you?' 'I know what I am, and I know that I am a male, and I would take he and him, and that's where I am. I believe there are two sexes, male and female,' Harbin said. The two were discussing a bill Harbin said would remove diversity, equity and inclusion programs from Georgia's public and private universities. It was not scheduled for a vote. Harbin said DEI programs have become tools of ideology rather than inclusion. 'Too often they result in a campus culture where dissenting viewpoints are silenced, where professors fear retribution for presenting alternate perspectives and where students self censor themselves to avoid accusations of insensitivity or bias,' he said. 'Academic institutions should encourage the marketplace of ideas and not a dogmatic adherence to a singular worldview. When certain perspectives are deemed unacceptable simply because they do not align with DEI principles, we replace education with indoctrination.' Several dozen people came to the committee to oppose the bill. 'When we learn about different cultures, perspectives, and histories, we become better thinkers, leaders, and citizens,' said high school student Laila Erold. 'This bill attempts to stifle that growth, and I will not stand by and let it happen. By silencing discussions on race and identity, SB 120 perpetuates ignorance and fear. It tells us that our struggles don't matter, that our voices don't matter. We're not just students, we are activists, and we will fight for our right to learn in an environment that embraces rather than shuns diversity.' Harbin said he was bringing the bill on behalf of a constituent's daughter who had several galling experiences at Georgia College and State University. 'When she joined her sorority, she was required to pick a pronoun to describe her and what she was. And she said, 'I know what I am. I should not be required –' but she was required, in order to join, she was required to have to fill out the form as it was,' he said. The freshman had another problem with one of the texts in her English class, Harbin said. 'The requirement was this article, this was read, had to be read in class,' he said. 'And I will not read the title of it. You can read the title yourself there because I don't want to offend anybody, but if you read that, that was read in class by each of the students, (they) had to sit there and go through that and read different parts of this, and she was extremely offended.' The title of the article was 'I'm a plus-size woman of color. Posing nude in front of strangers helped my self-esteem.' For centuries, the word 'doge' was nothing but a childish misspelling for man's best friend. For a brief window from about 2013 to 2025, doge described a silly little dog that people on the internet could use to make jokes, as well as a niche cryptocurrency. But from January to an unknown point in the future, DOGE is the Department of Government Efficiency, a chaotic government agency dedicated to rooting out waste, spearheaded by the world's richest man, Elon Musk. Sandy Springs Democratic Sen. Josh McLaurin may have become the first Georgia senator to take to the well with an internet meme printed out on Senate letterhead Monday when he wielded a picture of the doge meme to speak against Georgia's 'Red Tape Rollback Act,' which supporters billed as Georgia's version of DOGE. In the broken English typical of doge memes, McLaurin's picture read 'so Senate, Red, very tape, much legal, wow.' McLaurin is accustomed to using humor to make a political point – he regularly takes on the persona of a news anchor to roast President Donald Trump's second administration from the Senate well, sometimes earning chuckles even from his Trump-supporting Republican colleagues. He said he used the doge prop to illustrate the disdain he says the administration shows toward institutions and the people who make them up. 'I think the challenge with using humor in politics is it's got to be a type of fun that everybody can get behind, or at least most people can get behind, that's not at somebody else's expense,' he said. 'Genuine fun for the sake of fun lightens all our spirits, but when somebody is couching something destructive or mean or insulting as a quote-unquote 'joke,' then it takes on a different character. That's my criticism of the use of the doge meme federally, is that it's being used to dismantle the government, to strand USAID employees overseas, to fire a bunch of people illegally who do great work and depend on those paychecks. There's some things that a meme can't make funny, and that's in that category.' Speaking with the Recorder about memes and humor in politics Friday, McLaurin used Vice President JD Vance – McLaurin's former college roommate – as an example of someone who uses comedy to punch down. McLaurin referred to a 2021 tweet from Vance after actor and outspoken Trump critic Alec Baldwin accidentally shot and killed a cinematographer while filming a movie. Vance called on Twitter's then-CEO to reinstate Trump's then-canceled account so the then-former president could comment on his detractor's misfortune, which many panned as insensitive in the wake of the tragic accident. 'When he was confronted about that, he said something like, 'the country wants authenticity and wants people to lighten up,'' McLaurin said. 'My sense is that the country does want people to lighten up. The country does want authenticity. But the country doesn't want leaders who are authentically an a–hole.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
