Jessica Padilla remembers packing her bags last October and boarding a flight from Miami to Charlotte to join her husband. He had already moved a few months prior. One thing that stood out: How many others on her flight were doing the same thing.
“South Floridians traveling to Charlotte because they were either in the middle of moving, or they were checking out the city because they wanted to move,” Padilla recalled.
Padilla and those on her flight are drawn to the same things that have attracted hundreds of thousands of transplants over the decades: cheaper homes, less traffic and more job opportunities.
“When I first arrived, I was in shock,” Padilla said. “I come from a big city, there was a lot happening, a lot of music all the time and noise and people and cars and traffic.”
