Mobility across the US is down [NYT]. A paper last year proposed the creation of a "mobility bank" to help finance the residential moves of American workers. Reihan offers qualified support for the idea:
Basically, this "mobility bank" will step in and play the role normally played by one’s extended kinship network. The poor tend to have weaker family ties, which makes borrowing the money you need to move to a more economically viable region difficult if not impossible. … I see it as a cheaper and more effective alternative to government programs that try to keep people in economically-depressed regions …
Earlier discussions of how expensive moving is here and here.
The Dish 