Americans have migrated from city to city at a tremendous pace in the past year and a half. One reason is mortgage rates at the lowest levels in decades (though that has changed recently as interest rates have spiked). Another is a desire to move from the expensive coastal cities such as New York and San Francisco to less expensive cities inland. Ironically, this has pushed up prices in many smaller metros.
The primary catalyst of this surge in moving is the work-from-home lifestyle driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many companies were forced to clear out offices because of the virus. Some of these companies have decided to allow workers to work wherever they would like.
United Van Lines tracks which cities and states people are leaving and which they are going to in its Annual National Movers Study, which it has published for 45 years. The research is based on the number of households United Van Lines has moved. Commenting on the results, Michael A. Stoll, economist and professor in the Department of Public Policy at the University of California, Los Angeles, said, “This new data from United Van Lines is indicative of COVID-19’s impact on domestic migration patterns, with 2021 bringing an acceleration of moves to smaller, midsized towns and cities.”
The study looked at metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) based on the percentage of people who are moving into them compared to the number moving out of them. An MSA had to have more than 100 moves to qualify.
One trend the study shows is that the cities people are leaving tend to be concentrated around New York City. The city with the highest percentage of departures is Nassau-Suffolk, which is east of the city on Long Island. The level of departures is 79% of total moves. Of the 12 MSAs with the highest outbound moves, seven are in the New York City area.
These are the 20 cities Americans are moving out of the fastest:
- Nassau-Suffolk, N.Y. (79%)
- Hagerstown, Md. (77%)
- Santa Cruz, Calif. (76%)
- Bergen, N.J. (76%)
- Binghamton, N.Y. (75%)
- Newark, N.J. (74%)
- Joliet, Ill. (74%)
- Poughkeepsie, N.Y. (73%)
- Middlesex, N.J. (72%)
- Springfield, Ill. (72%)
- Trenton, N.J. (71%)
- Jersey City, N.J. (71%)
- Chicago, Ill. (70%)
- Lake Charles, La. (69%)
- Oxnard, Calif. (69%)
- Hamilton, Ohio (68%)
- Monmouth, N.J. (68%)
- Rockford, Ill. (67%)
- Bismarck, N.D. (67%)
- Lake, Ill. (67%)
Click here to see the state that people are leaving most.
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