People Are Leaving New Jersey, Moving To Vermont

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jan 2, 10:32AM EST

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People Are Leaving New Jersey, Moving To Vermont — © SeanPavonePhoto / iStock via Getty Images

Americans became more mobile over the last three years as mortgage rates fell and more people could work from home. A recent survey shows the states Americans left and those they moved to in the greatest numbers. The state the most people moved from versus moved to was New Jersey. Vermont was at the other end of the list.
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The United Van Lines National Movers Study is in its 46th year. United is among America’s largest movers, making the survey a good benchmark. The results are based on simple metrics. How many people left a state compared to how many people moved there.

New Jersey has topped the list of states people are leaving for five years. Specifically, the study pointed out that “more residents moved out of New Jersey than any other state, as 67% of New Jersey moves were outbound, which is down from the five-year trend of 70%.”

The states behind New Jersey were Illinois, New York, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. It may be a coincidence, but these were among the states with the highest populations half a century ago. Since then, the large states with the most population growth have been California, Texas, and Florida.

Based on the study, it appears that the large states measured by population, in general, are no longer the ones with the most inbound versus outbound movers. The state with the largest positive ratio was Vermont, followed by Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Delaware. Each of these has a relatively small population. Michael A. Stoll, economist and professor in the Department of Public Policy at the University of California, Los Angeles, commented, “Key factors like retirement, wanting to be closer to family and lifestyle changes influenced by the pandemic along with current housing prices drove moving patterns in 2022.” Rhode Island and Delaware seem odd places to retire.

A recession often rearranges where people move and why. High mortgage rates may cut the ability to move in the next few years. Unemployment rates have a similar effect. Maybe next year more people will stay put.
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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.