Americans have gone through a period of extraordinary mobility. The high costs of living and real estate in the major coastal cities such as New York and San Francisco are part of the reason. Also, low mortgage rates have made homes more affordable, and the COVID-19 pandemic has allowed people who work from home to relocate from cities where their companies have offices to almost anywhere in the country.
One iconic byproduct of mobility is that home prices in some modest-sized (by population) states and cities have soared. People have crowded into Idaho, Oregon, Tennessee and South Carolina, along with some of the cities within their borders. Census data for 2021 likely will show population increases in these states and cities that are higher than the U.S. average.
Mayflower, the large moving company, recently released a study titled “Finding Home.”
In the study, the moves were measured by those inbound to state and city between July 2019 and July 2021. The data were collected between September 13 and September 23. The study claims the data reflect gender, generation and measures of the census by region. One conclusion the researchers took from the data:
[It] revealed nearly three-fourths of Americans (74%) feel they have a hometown. However, the meaning of “hometown” is in the eye of the beholder: 58% think of their hometown as the place they come from, while 42% think of their hometown as the place they’re currently living.
The states with the most inbound moves were Idaho, South Carolina, Tennessee and Florida.
The city with the most inbound moves was Sarasota, Florida, where 76.9% of all moves were inbound. It was followed by Wilmington, Fort Myers, Santa Fe and Boise.
Here are the top 10 cities where people are moving:
- Sarasota, Fla. (76.9% inbound)
- Wilmington, N.C. (75.9% inbound)
- Fort Myers-Cape Coral, Fla. (75.1% inbound)
- Santa Fe, N.M. (73.1% inbound)
- Boise, Idaho (69.8% inbound)
- Huntsville, Ala. (68.0% inbound)
- Daytona Beach, Fla. (66.8% inbound)
- Knoxville, Tenn. (66.7% inbound)
- Nashville, Tenn. (65.1% inbound)
- West Palm Beach, Fla. (64.7% inbound)
Click here to read about America’s 50 best cities to live in.
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