Earlier this month, Buffalo Business First released an article titled “Moving activity is up, according to Uhaul study.” The article, like all others from the local news site, is behind a paywall. If you have a subscription, you can read the full article here. For those not able to read the full article, we will provide a brief synopsis below.
In summary, Buffalo Business First writes that:
- Uhaul has come up with a calculation referred to as the “Uhaul Growth Index.”
- This index is computed by measuring the number of one-way Uhaul trucks rented that are leaving the city as opposed to entering it.
- For 2021, there were approximately an equal amount of people leaving Buffalo as entering it.
The article, while well-written, seemed to miss the mark, leaving out several key points to consider. As a trusted moving company for the last 26 years and counting, we thought we would share our professional point of view and weigh in on what the article is attempting to answer: are people leaving Buffalo?
A few points and opinions to consider:
- First and foremost, the Buffalo Business First article relies exclusively on Uhaul moving data, instantly creating an incomplete point of view.
- Furthermore, Uhaul only provides the public access to a limited amount of data, with the majority of raw data and calculations hidden for “proprietary” reasons.
- From what we do know from their stats, Uhaul’s data does not include people who use professional Buffalo-based moving companies (like Keith’s), people who rely on friends and family to move, or even people who use other truck-rental companies.
- Lastly, Uhaul’s data only accounts for people moving in or out of the city of Buffalo. Surrounding Northtowns, Southtowns, and suburbs are completely omitted from Uhaul’s calculation.
While we credit Buffalo Business First for using data to illustrate their point, the data they chose to use is extremely limited and may even be unreliable, thus creating an incomplete and misleading picture.
In September of last year, we shared our first-hand experience moving families all over the Buffalo area in a post called “Buffalo is Moving Forward.” The article was from our professional point of view moving countless families throughout Western New York (not just Buffalo). It also took the surging local housing market into account which was one of the fastest-growing in the nation at the time. Coming off the heels of peak pandemic, we saw firsthand that Buffalo was rebounding stronger than ever as we successfully moved more families that summer than ever before in the history of our company.
In summary, all of us here at Keith’s Moving Company are optimistic for our great city and hope to continue to help more families move in 2022.