It's the Midwest's time to shine: Baby boomers explain why the left the Sunbelt and moved back north

• Domestic migration to the Sunbelt has slowed, and the Midwest is a beneficiary.
• Three baby boomers explain why they traded the Sunbelt for the Midwest.
• Rising home prices and climate change impacts have made the Midwest more attractive.

After 40 years in Arkansas, Teri Center missed Midwestern summers. Benton got so hot and humid that the Minnesota native felt trapped in her air-conditioned home for months at a time. She worried things would only get worse as climate change takes its toll.

"The fall quit happening because it went from drought summers to dead-looking leaves," the 66-year-old said.

She and her husband, both retired, were also eager to live in a small, walkable city in a blue state with affordable home prices, good healthcare, and legal marijuana, which Center uses to help treat her chronic pain.

So in 2023, the couple sold their Benton home for $195,000, uprooted their lives, and moved to Lansing, Michigan, where they bought an old home for $65,000 that they're fixing up themselves. They live within walking distance of the state capitol, biking and walking trails, a hospital, and a ballpark. Lansing hits the "sweet spot" for affordability and climate, Center said, though they left their community behind in Arkansas. They didn't know anyone in Lansing when they moved.

Center's move is part of a bigger trend. The data shows that over the last few decades, domestic migration to the Sunbelt has slowed — and flyover country is becoming the new place to be.

Home prices and rents have risen dramatically in many Southern and Sunbelt communities, particularly as the regions have welcomed a spike of new residents in the years since the pandemic. At the same time, much of the Snowbelt, particularly more rural areas, has stayed relatively affordable. The North is also experiencing less frigid winters, while the Sunbelt grows ever steamier, making the Snowbelt increasingly attractive.

People who've traded their lives in the Sunbelt or West for the Midwest told Business Insider their new home offers an affordable cost of living, a high quality of life, and something of a safe haven from the worst impacts of climate change.

A good quality of life

When Patrick Walters and his wife moved to Carmel, Indiana, two decades ago, they were looking for a safe place with good public schools to raise their four young kids. The family, who'd moved several times, including to Central California and Chicago, found just what they were looking for in the northern Indianapolis suburb.

Carmel has nearly doubled in population to over 100,000 residents over the last quarter century, but it's still a safe, affordable, and increasingly attractive place to raise a family, Walters said. Videos of the impressive athletic and academic facilities at the city's high-achieving public high school recently went viral on TikTok. And urbanists celebrate the suburb's walkability and density — and its many roundabouts.

Walters, who grew up in Colorado, misses the natural beauty of the West, but he's come to love the Midwest's quality of life. "If somebody had told me years ago that I'd be living in Indiana, I would have thought they were crazy," he said. "But this is by far the nicest place we've ever lived."

Younger people agree. All four of Walters' kids, who are between 23 and 32 years old, still live in Indiana and don't want to leave. His two oldest recently bought their own homes in the Indianapolis suburbs.

"You can have a really high quality of life out here for a lot less money than other parts of the country," he said.

Have you moved to the Midwest — or left? Reach out to this reporter at erelman@businessinsider.com.

Escaping heat and drought

Worsening extreme heat, hurricanes, droughts, and wildfires are making large parts of the South and Sunbelt more challenging places to live. And it looks like Americans are starting to respond by moving away.

The warmest places in the country have seen their population growth slow while the coldest places are growing, economists at the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank reported last year. As temperatures rise and extreme weather events grow more severe with climate change, the trend looks like it's here to stay.

Nearly 20 years ago, Robert Taylor left his hometown of Flint, Michigan, for a change of pace in Arizona, where he lived on a golf course and got around by bicycle. But after 10 years in Tempe, he wanted a break from the desert heat and droughts and moved to New Orleans.

"I decided that maybe I didn't enjoy the heat as much, and I was still worried about the water, and I was getting older, and I wanted to have some fun, so I decided to move to New Orleans, walk around, and drink all day," he said.

But after several years in the Big Easy, Taylor, 63, felt he could no longer afford the rising cost of housing or handle the intense heat and humidity for half the year.

So he moved back to Flint, where he rents a room for $400 a month and hopes to use the money he's saving on housing to travel more. He's still adjusting to living in a much smaller city with fewer attractions. But at least the winters aren't as frigid as he remembers.

"People in Michigan have gotten soft," he said. "Now you get an inch of snow on the ground and things shut down here. It's just laughable."