Many people in the United States traded in their blue-state residencies during the coronavirus outbreak and migrated to Republican-led states where the cost of living tends to be lower and pandemic rules were generally less restrictive in a continuation of recent moving trends.
A report from national moving company North American Moving Services revealed that Illinois, New York, and New Jersey were the top three outbound states in 2020, with Idaho, Arizona, and Tennessee receiving the highest share of incoming residents among states.
The top five outbound states were rounded off by California and Maryland, where the inbound-outbound ratios were 36%-64% and 39%-61% respectively, while North Carolina and South Carolina stood among the five highest inbound states. California’s fleers largely went to Texas and Idaho, the report said.
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California has repeatedly ranked within the top 10 for outbound moves since 2015, according to the report, which floated the state’s high cost of living and lack of affordable housing as two potential motivators for movers.
“Northeastern states make up four out of the seven states with the most outbound moves, and none of them make the top eight for inbound moves,” the report said, noting harsh winters, job availability, and high cost of living.
“Even as Americans move to different states, southern sunbelt states will probably stay on the list for many years,” it added, noting that Texas, Florida, and Tennessee have no state income tax and that tax rates in other southern states are low relative to the high-ranking outbound states.
Other reports have also found that those moving out of cities are headed for lower-tax states.
Sixteen states had more inbound moves than outbound moves out of roughly 300,000 households that moved during the first quarter of 2021, according to moving assistance platform Updater Technologies. Those 16 states include the Carolinas, Arizona, Texas, Tennessee, and Florida.
“With vaccinations underway, restrictions lifted in some of our hardest-hit cities, and companies rolling out permanent hybrid working solutions, we’re anticipating a summer moving season unlike any other with a series of new, atypical patterns,” Updater CEO David Greenberg said in response to the data.
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The coronavirus pandemic did not affect moving rates, according to the North American Moving Services report, which found that people moved at rates comparable to 2019.
