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Look who's moving to Colorado

Motor vehicle data show Californians, Texans, Arizonans

By Hector Gutierrez, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published January 5, 2009 at 12:05 a.m.

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Noticing more California, Texas and Arizona license plates on Colorado's roads in recent years?

Chances are many of those people aren't visiting the state for the week, but have pulled up stakes and settled here.

Maybe there have been too many fires in California or too much hot weather in Arizona and Texas. Could be Colorado's quality of life or attractive real estate are drawing newcomers.

Whatever the reason, those are the three top states for new Colorado residents, according to data obtained from the state's Division of Motor Vehicles.

Not surprisingly, Californians continued to lead the charge of Go east, young man, go east, according to DMV statistics.

In 2006, more than 22,000 former California titles and tags were exchanged for Colorado plates. Last year, that number dropped to 21,274. In 2008, a little more than 18,800 California titles and plates were recorded by the DMV.

More than 12,800 Texan vehicle owners got their Colorado plates in 2006, and a little more than 13,100 in 2007. In 2008, 12,285 Texas car owners obtained their Colorado tags.

Vehicle titles and tags from Arizona placed third among the 50 states, according to the motor vehicles division, which is part of the Colorado Department of Revenue.

Officials from the motor vehicles division cautioned that the data likely are somewhat skewed because they don't indicate how long vehicle owners actually had lived in the state before they turned in their former titles and tags for new Colorado plates.

Elizabeth Garner, state demographer for the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, also pointed out that numbers from the motor vehicles division represent only one side of migration shifts.

While it is true that people have relocated to this state, Coloradans, in turn, have been moving to California, Texas, Arizona and elsewhere.

As a result, Colorado's net gain in population from those states is narrowed considerably.

For example, Garner cited figures from the Internal Revenue Service that showed in 2005-2006 more than 8,100 Coloradans resettled in Arizona, compared with a little under 8,000 former Arizonans who moved here. Many retirees have relocated to Arizona, she said.

"So, we actually have a net out," Garner said.

Nonetheless, the strong migration patterns to Colorado reflect the major changes the state and Denver have experienced in the past 10 years.

"A lot of that is because of our job growth," Garner said. "We brought a lot of people in from other states. A lot of people who come to Colorado come for jobs but not to retire."

Jeff Romine, chief economist and strategic adviser for the Denver Office of Economic Development, said the Mile High City combines a good quality of life, a sense of place and reasonably strong economy compared with the rest of the country.

"It's that realization that, 'Wow, this really is a first-class city. It's not what I thought it was. There're great restaurants here. There're great theaters here.' It's not just about snowboarding," Romine said.

Comments

  • January 5, 2009

    5:50 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    badtungsten writes:

    I moved to Colorado in 2007 from Florida for exactly the reasons stated in the article. I relocated for a promotion with my employer. I doubt I will retire in Colorado, but I do have to admit that the state has grown on me. I did not imagine how stunningly beautiful it would be!

  • January 5, 2009

    7:12 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Denverboy1 writes:

    Welcome all ya outta Staters......To the best State in the Union.....
    But please use the one resource we provide to California and Arizona with as much care as possible............WATER ....H2O....
    there's never enough and it we need more and more of it.....
    Again.......Welcome......That is all

  • January 5, 2009

    8:12 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    oceansintensity writes:

    We relocated here last year for a promotion with my husband's employer, from Arizona. I never imagined that any place could be so friendly to transplants, myself being from the NW where transplants are practically openly shunned. ;) Thanks for the warm welcome Colorado.

  • January 5, 2009

    8:30 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    greenleaf writes:

    As a native Coloradan, I have seen the population of the state increase from a little more than a million to the nearly 5 million we have today. If you think the state is beautiful now, you should have seen it then. All of our towns and cities had vast tracts of farm and ranch land separating them . Lakewood, Littleton, Englewood and Denver weren't part of one metropolis at the time. I could step out the door of my parent's home and still hear meadowlarks and occasionally still see antelope. This was near Sheridan and Hampden where the city ended and open space began that ran south to Castlerock. From Castlerock there was unbroken open space that ran all the way to Colorado Springs. Highlands ranch was a working cattle ranch owned by the Phipps family. I remember when the Boulder turnpike opened as a toll road that it ran through nothing but farms and cattle ranches. The mountain views were some of the best along the front range. Now we peer between the high rise buildings of Interlocken and look over seas of rooftops and shopping malls. It just isn't the same.

    I know we could have handled growth far better than what we have to this point. We have wasted so much land and destroyed so many views and damaged so many wildlife habitats to accommodate this growth. Several years ago, a lady who had recently moved to Colorado from California wrote an angry letter to the editor protesting a developer's extermination of prairie dog colonies in the fields by her home. She didn't realize that another developer had almost certainly done the same to clear the land for her house.

    Edward Abby once said that ..."growth for growth's sake is the logic of a cancer cell.". I can only hope that the newcomers are sensitive to their impacts upon the land and donate time and money toward smarter development and preservation of open space. Our population is expected to grow by several million in the next 25 years. I hope that doesn't happen but it probably will. Today's newcomers might well have similar memories to mine in the not too distant future as they morn beauty and open spaces lost forever to development. I hope not. I hope we have learned a few lessons and won't come to resemble the crowded places the newcomers have just left.

  • January 5, 2009

    11:43 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    gallegoi writes:

    I don't like Texans. They can go back.

  • January 5, 2009

    5:49 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    mango5 writes:

    I traveled to Creed Co as a sixteen year old one summer. I am from Texas. My friends and I were treated like dirt by most of the residents we met. In hindsight those folks were probably leftover hippies, burnouts, and elitist from the northeast and upper midwest that had sought out a hideout in the seventies. I promised myself I would never go back to Colorado and thirty years later I still don't miss it.
    Regarding this article which has no statistical or scientific basis my assumption is that mostly migration of illigal aliens both back and forth from the respective states makes up the majority of the registrations.
    I feel sorry for native residents as they have been subjected to a healthy dose of insanity from recent migration. Just look at the recent elections in your state. Colorado is a beautiful state. I hope you can retain some of it in it's natural state.
    One last note. Colorado is made up of all of the weaklings who could not hump it over the Rockies and make it to California in the 1800's. Texas does not love you either.