Top Cities People Are Moving To in the U.S.

Five major moving industry data sources don’t always agree on rankings, but the overlap in 2025–2026 is significant. Here’s where multiple sources independently show strong inbound migration:

The Carolinas and Tennessee have been consistent for several years now. What’s different is their staying power: unlike Texas and Florida, they haven’t hit the affordability ceiling that’s starting to equalize inbound and outbound flows.

Housing in Raleigh, Charlotte, and Nashville is more expensive than it was five years ago, but it’s still meaningfully cheaper than comparable cities on the coasts.

Texas added more new residents in absolute numbers than any other state – 391,243 people between mid-2024 and mid-2025. Florida added 196,980. By that measure, they’re still the biggest destinations in the country.

But the migration industry data tells a different story. United Van Lines classified both Texas and Florida as “balanced” in 2025, meaning inbound and outbound moves are roughly equal.

North American Van Lines put Texas at just 51% inbound – barely above the 50% breakeven. U-Haul still ranks Texas #1 for growth, but U-Haul’s methodology measures equipment returns, which skews toward truck-accessible moves and may overcount certain household types.

The city-level data is more striking. Tampa’s domestic inflow dropped 70% year-over-year. Orlando’s domestic inflow dropped 95% – from a meaningful positive to essentially zero.

These aren’t gradual cooling trends. They’re markets where affordability has deteriorated fast enough to eliminate the advantage that was driving the migration in the first place.

Florida as a whole is still growing in absolute terms primarily because it continues to attract retirees and international arrivals. The domestic working-age migration story is much more mixed than the headline numbers suggest.

This is the most genuinely surprising trend in the 2025 migration data, and it’s getting very little attention.

Minneapolis and Indianapolis both flipped from net domestic outflow to net inflow over the past year, according to Redfin’s analysis of Census Bureau data. Minnesota appeared on United Van Lines’ top 10 inbound state list for the first time in the study’s history. Minneapolis cracked U-Haul’s top 25 growth metros – also a first.

Why now? A few factors are converging. Midwest housing prices remain well below Sun Belt metros – median home prices in Indianapolis and Minneapolis sit roughly 40–60% below comparable homes in Austin, Tampa, or Phoenix.

Remote work has removed the penalty for living away from major coastal job markets. And Midwest cities have invested significantly in downtown infrastructure, food culture, and amenities that make them more competitive quality-of-life destinations than they were a decade ago.

Zillow’s 2025 hottest housing markets list included Rockford, Illinois and Toledo, Ohio – cities that would have seemed absurd on such a list five years ago. That’s not a fluke. It reflects a real reorientation of where people see value.

State-level data obscures a lot. Two states can both show “inbound” while having very different city-level stories. Here’s where the metro-level data points:

Fastest-growing metros by percentage (Census Bureau, July 2024–2025):

• Ocala, FL – 4.0% growth (top U-Haul city for the third time in four years)
• Panama City/Panama City Beach, FL – 3.8%
• Myrtle Beach/Conway, SC – 3.8%
• Lakeland/Winter Haven, FL – 3.5%
• Provo/Orem/Lehi, UT – 3.0%

Top inbound cities by North American Van Lines data: Charlotte, NC – Nashville, TN – Dallas, TX – Raleigh-Durham, NC – Boise, ID

Emerging mid-size cities with strong inflow ratios: Knoxville, TN (1.61 new residents for every person who leaves, per moveBuddha); Tulsa, OK; Vancouver, WA; Savannah, GA; Tucson, AZ.

The pattern across all of these: mid-size metros with below-median housing costs, reasonable commutes, and strong local job markets (often healthcare, logistics, or tech distribution). Not the glamour destinations, but the places where household economics actually work.

If you’re considering a move to any of these cities and need to find movers near you, we track local options across Nashville, Dallas, Denver, and dozens of other high-migration metros.

The outbound list has been consistent for years, but studying popular moving routes shows some notable shifts happened in 2025.

New Jersey led outbound migration for the eighth consecutive year, with 62% of United Van Lines shipments originating from the state being outbound moves.

New York (58%) and California (58%) followed. North American Van Lines shows similar rankings: California at 60% outbound, New Jersey 57%, Illinois 56%.

California lost roughly 237,700 net households and saw its population decline by about 9,000 people between mid-2024 and mid-2025. New York lost 121,300 net households. These are not small numbers.

But here’s what’s changing: both markets are showing stabilization at the margins. New York’s net outflow improved by nearly 34,000 year-over-year – fewer people leaving relative to the year before.

San Francisco and Denver both transitioned to net-gain markets in 2025, driven by tech industry recovery and an influx of younger workers. California’s absolute losses have moderated compared to the 2020–2022 pace.

None of that means the exodus has reversed. It means the pace has slowed, which is a meaningful distinction for anyone trying to buy or sell property in those markets.

Domestic outflows (people moving to other parts of the US, not leaving the country) were highest in:

• New York metro: -119,198 net domestic outflow
• Los Angeles: -99,979
• Miami: -67,418 (notable because Miami overall grew – international arrivals more than offset domestic losses)
• Chicago: -42,844

Miami’s situation is worth understanding separately. The city lost 67,000 domestic residents – people born or living elsewhere in the US who moved away – but international migration more than compensated.

Miami’s total population is growing even as its domestic composition shifts. The people arriving from Latin America, Europe, and elsewhere are different from the people leaving for Charlotte or Nashville.

United Van Lines’ 49th Annual Movers Study asked customers why they relocated. The answers:

• Closer to family: 29%
• Company transfer or new job: 26%
• Retirement: 14%

Affordability isn’t listed as a standalone reason, but it’s embedded in all three. Retirement moves go toward lower-cost-of-living states.

Family proximity moves often coincide with housing affordability (adult children moving near parents who left expensive cities). Job moves increasingly go to states with competitive tax environments.

Redfin’s data adds a behavioral metric: 18.8% of house hunters on their platform searched outside their current metro in Q4 2025, up from 17.9% the year before.

The long-term trend line has gone from around 15.9% five years ago. Remote work normalization is a structural driver – it removed the constraint that forced most people to live within commuting distance of their employer.

One thing that explicitly did not drive relocation decisions in 2025: politics. North American Van Lines found political motivation was minimal despite the 2024 election cycle.

Despite significant media coverage of politically motivated migration, the actual data doesn’t support it as a meaningful driver at the population level.

This is the underlying story that most migration coverage buries.

The United States added just 1.78 million people between July 2024 and July 2025 – roughly half the 3.2 million added the year before. The reason: net international migration dropped 54%, from 2.7 million to 1.3 million. That single factor explains more about 2025’s migration patterns than any domestic trend.

Cities that grew fastest in 2023–2024 – particularly in Florida and Texas – grew partly because of domestic moves and partly because of international arrivals filling housing demand. When international migration slowed sharply in 2025, cities dependent on that inflow saw their growth rates crater.

Tampa and Orlando’s domestic inflow didn’t disappear because people stopped wanting to live there. It appeared to disappear partly because the international cushion that masked slowing domestic migration was removed.

The Census Bureau noted this historic decline specifically in a January 2026 report. For anyone using 2023 or 2024 migration data to make real estate or relocation decisions, this structural shift matters.

A few practical conclusions from the data:

The Carolinas and Tennessee have been consistent for long enough that they’re not a trend – they’re a destination. If affordability and job market fundamentals are your priority, Raleigh, Charlotte, and Nashville continue to offer the combination that’s been drawing domestic migration for most of the decade.

The Midwest is worth a serious look that it wasn’t worth five years ago. Indianapolis, Columbus, and Minneapolis all offer housing at a fraction of Sun Belt pricing with improving urban amenities and competitive regional job markets. The data is showing people figured this out before the coverage did.

If you’re leaving California or New York for a high-demand destination, time matters. Markets like Charlotte and Nashville have seen significant price appreciation precisely because of the migration they’ve absorbed. Waiting a year to decide isn’t neutral – the affordability advantage narrows over time.

Additionally, before you pack, you might be wondering how much does 1-800-GOT-JUNK cost to clear out unwanted items; checking moving company reviews can help you budget for both the cleanout and the relocation itself.

For cost estimates before committing to a destination, use our moving cost calculator to understand what a long-distance move to a specific state actually runs. The distance premium on cross-country moves is significant and worth knowing before you compare the cost of living in two states.

Our long-distance moving services page also has guidance on choosing a mover for interstate relocations, which carry different licensing and insurance requirements than local moves.