Migration trends: Where are people moving to in 2025?

States people are moving to and away from

People are making moving plans all across the U.S. for 2025, but the largest chunk of survey respondents — nearly 46% — intend to relocate to a Southern state. The Midwest is the only other region with a net gain in interested movers, albeit by a narrow margin (a difference of just over 3%).

On the other hand, the West saw a net loss in movers, with roughly a quarter of respondents interested in relocating to a Western state but nearly 3 in 10 respondents hoping to leave the region. More respondents were considering leaving the Northeast states than moving there, too.

Broadly, these findings are consistent with migration trends of the past several years. From 2023 to 2024, for example, the South was the only region that experienced positive net domestic migration, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

“The pandemic accelerated preexisting patterns of migration away from some metro areas in the Northeast, Midwest and coastal California, and toward the Sun Belt and nearby, more affordable markets,” Alan Berube, a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution, wrote in a recent report.

Overall, it appears some Americans are looking to leave traditionally “red” and “blue” states for more purple pastures. Four of the seven “swing states” from the 2024 presidential election are among the top 10 states in net migration, including North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan and Arizona. None of the bottom 10 states in net migration were considered swing states in the same election.

While we didn’t directly collect data on Americans’ primary reasons for eyeing a move in 2025, a recent report from the National Association of Realtors found that just 3% of movers cited political reasons as their primary motivator. Politics are “not a big enough reason to shift large numbers of people,” said William Frey, a demographer and senior fellow at Brookings.

Top 10 states people are moving to

Eight of the top 11 states for net migration interest are located in the South. North Carolina tops the list for net gain, with 2,208 more respondents considering a move to the Tar Heel State than moving out. Following close on those heels is South Carolina: 83% more people want to relocate to South Carolina than want to leave it.

Tennessee overtook Florida for the third rank this year. This tracks with the latest available state-to-state migration data, which shows that Florida’s net domestic migration — while still high relative to other states — fell by more than 49% from 2022 to 2023. According to a report by the Florida Chamber Foundation, the high cost of housing is one key motivation for leaving the Sunshine State. Skyrocketing home insurance rates are a significant piece of Florida’s housing affordability crisis. Florida is the most expensive state for homeowners insurance, with an average annual premium of nearly $9,500, according to a report from the Consumer Federation of America. In some counties, rates have risen by as much as 102% from 2021 to 2024.

Note: Because Arizona and Arkansas have an exact tie for net migration interest, there are actually 11 states represented in the top 10 ranking.

An expanding job market may be driving some folks to the South: North Carolina and South Carolina rank in the top 10 states for job growth, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, Americans are mostly making new homes where the heart is. According to a 2024 report by the National Association of Realtors, the top reason homebuyers moved was to be closer to family or friends, with almost a quarter of respondents naming it as their primary reason for relocating.

In the top-ranked Carolinas in particular, a study by United Van Lines found that another key factor driving inbound moves is relocation for retirement. According to the study, retirement was cited by more than 1 in 5 movers to North Carolina and more than 1 in 4 movers to South Carolina.

Top 10 states people are leaving

The top 10 states that Americans are looking to leave span all regions of the U.S. but are more concentrated in the West and Northeast. California has the largest number of net movers (more than 7,300), with 89% more respondents considering leaving the state than moving to it. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, housing has become the top reason for relocating from California.

New York has the next-largest net migration loss, followed by its Northeastern neighbors New Jersey and Massachusetts. Over 2,000 more people — almost 50% more — are eyeing an exit from the Empire State than eyeing an entrance. New Jersey saw a difference of nearly 990 movers, while Massachusetts clocked about 590.

As in California, housing is a key reason New Yorkers are leaving the state. In her 2024 State of the State address, Gov. Kathy Hochul identified the state’s housing shortage — and “obscenely high cost of rents and mortgages” — as a critical driver of out-migration.

Why are so many people moving to the South from California and New York?

A variety of factors are prompting Americans to pack up and head to the South, but for many, it’s a matter of dollars and cents. “The affordability ‘pull’ that many Sun Belt metro areas exerted before and after the pandemic’s onset is equally an unaffordability ‘push’ from the big coastal markets,” wrote Berube of Brookings.

Indeed, staggering costs have priced many out of California and driven the state to the bottom rank for overall cost of living. The issue is especially intense when it comes to housing costs: California’s high rent prices position it as the worst state for renters, and the Golden State accounts for four of the five worst cities for first-time homebuyers. While the Empire State isn’t quite as concentrated at the bottom of these rankings as California, the cost of living in New York is still plenty high, especially for housing.

“Housing and housing costs ... are becoming an increasingly bigger part (of people’s decision to move) over the years because there’s increasingly (significant) differences across states in cost of living,” Frey, the demographer from Brookings, confirmed.

Conversely, many Southern states have won over transplants with a more moderate cost of living. Six Southern states rank in the top 10 for the cheapest places to live. Many movers are drawn by the South’s more affordable, abundant housing stock, in particular. The region contributes a substantial share of new home construction, and it contains all five cities where it’s cheaper to own a home than to rent.

“People are increasingly drawn to the South because of our unique mix of affordability, job opportunities and livability — a mix that’s sometimes harder to find in other regions,” said Simoes, the Georgia-based agent. “I think that rare mix of all three of those (factors) is what’s making it so popular.”

As for California and New York, the out-migration trends align with long-term trends. “In general, California and New York have been experiencing net domestic out-migration for at least 20 or 30 years,” Frey said. It’s immigration, not domestic migration, that’s the key driver for population gains in those states, he added.

New industry hot spots

Shifting epicenters of industry account for some of the migration from New York and California to the South, particularly for those moving between metro areas. 2023 saw the further solidification of some so-called “meta cities,” or cities that are networked by talent flows as some industries establish satellite hot spots. Think New York City to Miami (finance), San Francisco to Austin, Texas (tech), and Los Angeles to Nashville, Tennessee (entertainment).

Companies — and their employees — are leaving New York in particular for “meta cities” including Austin, Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina, in search of a lower cost of living, more abundant and affordable housing, and more business-friendly environments (i.e., lower taxes and fewer corporate regulations). Indeed, several Southern states either have a flat-rate income tax (Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina) or have no state income tax at all (Florida, Tennessee and Texas).

Wider impact of migration trends

Whether folks are planning a move to another state for lower housing prices, political differences or prettier weather, these migration trends could have a significant impact on the makeup of Congress and the Electoral College in the future. Four states that rank in the top 10 for moving interest (North Carolina, Texas, Florida and Idaho) are projected to gain one or more congressional seats due to net population growth after the 2030 census, while New York and California are projected to lose a combined six seats due to net population loss, according to an analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law. (It’s worth noting that domestic migration isn’t the only factor in population changes; immigration, and birth and death rates, play a critical role as well.)

“After the 1960 reapportionment, the South, Midwest and Northeast each had roughly the same number of representatives,” wrote Michael Li, senior counsel at the Brennan Center, in the report. “But with (the) country’s steady population shift southward in the years since, nearly 4 in 10 members of the House could well be Southerners by next decade.”

Net migration by state

Out of the top 11 states with the highest net migration, nine states either maintained the same rank or moved just one place up or down from their 2024 rankings. The lone exception? Michigan, which leapfrogged 11 places forward from its No. 20 position last year. However, it’s a different Midwestern state — Minnesota — that saw the biggest jump in moving interest from last year (No. 40 to No. 14).

As for the states people are most looking to leave, the makeup is relatively similar to last year’s ranking. Five of the bottom 10 states occupy the same rank as they did in 2024, and four of the remaining states moved between one and three places. The largest shift was Washington state, which moved up five places from last year but still sits in the bottom 10 states for net migration.

Methodology

This analysis is based on data from 122,584 ConsumerAffairs users who expressed interest in moving between March 2024 and March 2025. To determine the net migration change for each state, we compared the number of people interested in moving there with the number considering leaving.

The migration trends noted in our analysis reflect user interest, not actual moves.

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