The US Census Bureau announced yesterday that the percentage of Americans who changed residences last year was the lowest since the feds began keeping records in 1948. Only 11.9 percent of Americans moved to a different home in 2008 (see Page 3 of this PDF).

The New York Times has its take on the new data here.

Our most mobile year was 1965, when 20.7 percent of Americans switched addresses (many going from city neighborhoods to cul-de-sacs). In 2000, the percentage was 16.1 percent; it’s been below 15 percent ever since.

State-level data is not available yet, but the Northeast was the most stable region last year; only 8.2 percent of residents were reportedly living in new homes. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Northeasterners were happiest with their lot (or lots). Falling home prices in this recently overpriced region may be making it harder for people to sell their homes and move elsewhere with the profits.

The slowdown in geographic mobility has had one big psychological effect in Massachusetts: We’re no longer losing population. As I report in the Spring issue of CommonWealth magazine (released today), Massachusetts “was the only Northeastern state with a net migration gain in 2008 that also represented an improvement over 2003.”