The US just hit a demographic milestone nobody was expecting: net outflows of people for the first time in half a century during 2025. Let that sink in—fifty years is a long run, and reversals like this don't happen by accident.

What's driving this? Could be the economy, housing costs, remote work reshuffling where people actually live, or people chasing opportunities elsewhere. When population movement patterns shift this dramatically, it sends signals rippling through labor markets, real estate, consumption patterns—basically everything tied to economic activity.

For those tracking macro cycles and thinking about how these shifts ripple into asset markets: demographic trends are slower-moving but they reshape the playing field for everything else. Whether this is a one-year blip or the start of something bigger? That's the real question to watch.