As if moving wasn’t one of life’s most stressful events, it’s made tougher this summer by a continuing demand in Bend for movers and rental trucks.

People in the moving business say spring and summer are typically the busy seasons, but this summer is even busier. For example, renting a 26-foot box truck, the most popular available and one that can carry the contents of a three-bedroom home, is nearly impossible anytime before September.

“We have no trucks available,” said John McCauley, of McCauley’s Truck Center, a Penske Truck Rental dealer, in Bend. “The truck inventory is real tight in our area, so the corporate store we work under won’t let us rent out any trucks without going through them.”

The situation is the same at the U-Haul Moving & Storage of Bend on Nels Anderson Place. No 26- or 20-foot box trucks are available for a one-way rental before Sept. 2, said Eric Hood, the assistant manager. The demand is high, and too few trucks are available, he said.

“I’ve seen people walk out of here crying,” he said Tuesday. “It’s awful.”

The influx of newcomers to Bend added 27,000 people to the city population between 2010 and 2013, according to the Portland State University Population Forecast Program. The university counted 78,280 residents in Bend in 2013.

That number grew to 91,112 by 2016, making Bend the sixth fastest growing city with a population of 50,000 or more in the U.S., according to the Census Bureau. Portland State forecasts the population in Bend, including the area within its urban growth boundary, will reach close to 110,000 by 2025. City planners estimated that an average 12 people move to Bend every day, according to The Bulletin archives.

“People are coming here to retire,” said Denise Clancy, office manager at Bend Moving & Storage, an affiliate of United Van Lines. “They’re not coming here just to get a job.”

That may be true for Bend, but for Oregon, overall, slightly more than half the inbound migrants arrived looking for work or to take up a new job, according to the United Van Lines 2016 National Movers’ Study.

About half of the outbound movers said they, too, were leaving Oregon for a job. Nearly 20 percent, the next largest group of in-migrants, said they came to Oregon to retire.

South Dakota ranked as the No. 1 movers’ destination that year, followed by Vermont and Oregon, according to the survey. No. 3 Oregon held the top spot in the United Van Lines study for the previous three years before being edged out.

Arranging an interstate move may not involve the delay that a cross-town or intrastate move involves, said Clancy and Jason Pigot, the owner of American Moving and Storage, also of Bend. The crew size required, destination and timing are some determining factors, they said.

“If you wanted to move tomorrow, it all depends on how organized you are,” Pigot said Tuesday. “If you want to move a month from now, no problem.”

He said this summer seems busier than the previous few summers, as home prices escalate and those who held onto their property through the Great Recession now see the time is right to cash out and move on.

Morgan Parker, Bend franchise owner of College Hunks Hauling Junk and Moving, said he sees the same phenomenon. His business handles strictly in-state moves. With two trucks and 16 part-time workers, the smallest franchise in the company, College Hunks in Bend completed 449 moves last year, he said.

“Some are selling their homes in higher priced areas like Bend and moving to places like Redmond and Prineville,” he said.

Incoming moves, for which College Hunks provides labor, are typically from Portland or California, Parker said. “There are a lot of California people.”

Outbound destinations include states in the South and Southwest, said McCauley, and weather is often the reason cited by customers.

“We’ve had quite a few recent moves to Texas and Florida,” he said. “And Arizona comes in No. 3.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7815,
 jditzler@bendbulletin.com

Moving pros offer these tips:

• Make arrangements a month in advance, if possible

• Check the Oregon Department of Transportation list of authorized movers: www.oregon.gov/ODOT/MCT/Pages/HouseholdGoodsMoving.aspx

• Return your rented moving truck promptly. Even a few hours’ delay can derail another’s move.