This Is the Top City Americans Are Moving To

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Nov 7, 10:00AM EST

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This Is the Top City Americans Are Moving To — © vkbhat / E+ via Getty Images

Americans have gone through a period of extraordinary mobility — and the top city Americans are moving to is Sarasota, Florida.

The high costs of living and real estate prices in major coastal cities such as New York and San Francisco are part of the reason Americans have been moving. Low mortgage rates have also made homes more affordable, and the COVID-19 pandemic has allowed people who work from home to relocate from cities where their companies have offices to almost anywhere in the country. (These are the best cities to live and work from home in 2021.)

One byproduct of this elevated mobility is that home prices in some modest-sized (by population) states and cities have soared. People have crowded into Idaho, Oregon, Tennessee, and South Carolina, along with some of the cities within their borders. Census data for 2021 will likely show higher population growth in these states and cities than the U.S. average.

24/7 Wall St. reviewed a study by large moving company Mayflower titled “Finding Home.” Mayflower’s data from locations where the company supported 800 or more total moves revealed the locations — states and cities — with the most inbound moves between July 2019 and July 2021.

The states with the most inbound moves were Idaho, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Florida.

In addition to the migration data, a survey that claims to reflect the U.S. population by gender, generation, and census by region was conducted between Sept. 13 and Sept. 23, 2021.

The survey revealed that “nearly three-fourths of Americans (74%) feel they have a hometown.” The meaning of “hometown,” however, is not the same among those surveyed: “58% think of their hometown as the place they come from, while 42% think of their hometown as the place they’re currently living.”

Regardless of whether or not people were moving to their new hometown or away from it, the city with the most inbound moves was Sarasota, Florida, where 76.9% of all moves were inbound. It was followed by Wilmington, North Carolina; Fort Myers, Florida; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Boise, Idaho. Find out if these cities are among the best cities to live.

Here are the top 25 cities where people are moving

25. Phoenix, AZ
> Pct. moving inbound: 58.1%

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24. Seattle, WA
> Pct. moving inbound: 58.2%

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23. Orlando, FL
> Pct. moving inbound: 58.4%

22. Biloxi-Gulfport-Pascagoula, FL
> Pct. moving inbound: 59.0%

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21. Jacksonville, FL
> Pct. moving inbound: 59.3%

20. Portland-Vancouver, OR-WA
> Pct. moving inbound: 59.5%

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19. Greenville-Spartanburg, SC
> Pct. moving inbound: 59.7%

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18. Charleston, DC
> Pct. moving inbound: 60.4%

17. Charlotte-Gastonia, NC-SC
> Pct. moving inbound: 61.1%

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16. Tampa-St Petersburg-Clearwater, FL
> Pct. moving inbound: 61.6%

15. Boulder-Longmont, CO
> Pct. moving inbound: 61.7%

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14. Fort Collins-Loveland, CO
> Pct. moving inbound: 62.8%

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13. Melbourne-Titusville-Palm Bay, FL
> Pct. moving inbound: 63.0%

12. Austin-San Marcos, TX
> Pct. moving inbound: 63.4%

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11. Naples, FL
> Pct. moving inbound: 64.2%

10. West Palm Beach, FL
> Pct. moving inbound: 64.7%

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9. Nashville, TN
> Pct. moving inbound: 65.1%

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8. Knoxville, TN
> Pct. moving inbound: 66.7%

7. Daytona Beach, FL
> Pct. moving inbound: 66.8%

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6. Huntsville, AL
> Pct. moving inbound: 68.0%

5. Boise, ID
> Pct. moving inbound: 69.8%

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4. Santa Fe, NM
> Pct. moving inbound: 73.1%

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3. Fort Myers-Cape Coral, FL
> Pct. moving inbound: 75.1%

2. Wilmington, NC
> Pct. moving inbound: 75.9%

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Sarasota (CC BY 2.0) by Piutus

1. Sarasota, FL
> Pct. moving inbound: 76.9%

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.