This American City Is the Easiest To Relocate To

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Feb 18, 1:00PM EST

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This American City Is the Easiest To Relocate To — © Dean Mitchell / iStock via Getty Images

Americans have continued to move from place to place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the reasons for the moves during the pandemic were the desire to leave expensive coastal cities like New York and San Francisco to less expensive cities and towns inland. This has caused home prices to spike in some smaller communities. There is also the perception that the “quality of living” is better outside America’s largest metros. (These are America’s 50 best cities to live.)

The COVID-19 pandemic has also made millions of Americans less tethered to the locations of their company’s offices. But not all cities are equally easy to move to, though Napa, California, is the American city that is easiest to relocate to.

One hurdle to moving is home prices and inventories. Mattress manufacturer Amerisleep looked at this challenge in a research report that covered the easiest cities to relocate to. It compared housing data in America’s 200 largest metros and screened for increases in home prices and home inventory between 2018 and 2021. The data used for the study was taken from Zillow and the U.S. Census. Cities were rated on a point system.

The authors commented: “Cities where house prices have risen below the average, and more houses are on the market, combine the best of both worlds for people looking to start somewhere new.”

24/7 Wall St. reviewed Amerisleep’s data to find the 22 American cities easiest to relocate to. The city at the top of the list was Napa, with 5.89 points. THe authors noted that Napa’s high rank is the result of “a 31% increase in the number of houses on sale since 2018 – the highest rate of all areas included in the study.” In addition, “there has been a relatively low 13% increase in property cost, from an average of $101,872 in March 2018 to $115,575 in the latest available figures. Napa’s current population is 79,246.”

Napa was followed by Abilene, Texas, with a score of 5.42. Its population is 125,182. Austin, Texas, was next with a score of 4.85. Its population is 961,855. (Find out if these cities are among the cheapest cities where everyone wants to live right now.)

On the far end of the spectrum, “Out of the top 200 populated cities that were in the study, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, is the most challenging city for people to relocate to. Tuscaloosa has a population of 99,600 and has seen a decrease of 49% in house availability since 2018.”

Click here to see the American city that is the easiest to relocate to

22. Billings, MT
> Average improvement in price and availability: 1.17
> Population: 117,116

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21. Providence, RI
> Average improvement in price and availability: 1.46
> Population: 190,934

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20. San Francisco, CA
> Average improvement in price and availability: 1.53
> Population: 873,965

19. Ogden, UT
> Average improvement in price and availability: 1.66
> Population: 87,321

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18. Springfield, MA
> Average improvement in price and availability: 1.70
> Population: 155,929

17. Baton Rouge, LA
> Average improvement in price and availability: 1.78
> Population: 227,470

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16. Cedar Rapids, IA
> Average improvement in price and availability: 2.14
> Population: 137,710

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15. Denver, CO
> Average improvement in price and availability: 2.18
> Population: 715,522

14. Topeka, KS
> Average improvement in price and availability: 2.25
> Population: 126,587

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13. Manchester, NH
> Average improvement in price and availability: 2.44
> Population: 115,644

12. Bloomington, IL
> Average improvement in price and availability: 2.47
> Population: 78,680

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11. San Antonio, TX
> Average improvement in price and availability: 2.90
> Population: 1,434,625

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10. Minneapolis-St Paul, MN
> Average improvement in price and availability: 3.31
> Population: 429,954

9. Lexington, KY
> Average improvement in price and availability: 3.44
> Population: 322,570

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8. Charleston, SC
> Average improvement in price and availability: 3.45
> Population: 150,227

7. Champaign-Urbana, IL
> Average improvement in price and availability: 3.59
> Population: 88,302

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6. Duluth, MN
> Average improvement in price and availability: 3.62
> Population: 86,697

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5. Detroit, MI
> Average improvement in price and availability: 4.59
> Population: 639,111

4. Warner Robins, GA
> Average improvement in price and availability: 4.61
> Population: 80,308

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3. Austin, TX
> Average improvement in price and availability: 4.86
> Population: 961,855

2. Abilene, TX
> Average improvement in price and availability: 5.42
> Population: 125,182

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1. Napa, CA
> Average improvement in price and availability: 5.89
> Population: 79,246

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.