Why don't we encourage people to move to where the water already is? There is plenty of room for people in Great Lakes/Rust Belt cities of Detroit, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Buffalo, Toledo, Erie, Gary, etc.
People move to where good jobs are and I never think of the places you listed for good jobs.
Retired people generally want to live where the temperatures are warmer and don't have to deal with tons of snow.
Sure, people want to live where the temperature is warm all year, unfortunately those places don't have water. Water sits at the base of Maslow's Hierarchy. Winter is also moderating pretty quickly in the Midwest, barely any snow last winter.