Top Outbound States
Top Inbound States
The above numbers are on a percentage basis of inbound to outbound moves, not absolute numbers.
The report is from North American Moving Services.
Key Takeaways from the 2020 Migration Report
- People are fleeing California for Texas and Idaho
- Illinois, New York, and New Jersey are the three states with the most outbound moves.
- The top five inbound states in 2020 are Idaho, Arizona, Tennessee, South Carolina, and North Carolina, with Tennessee overtaking South Carolina from the 2019 results.
- Florida, Texas, and Colorado round out the top eight states for inbound moves.
- Despite pandemic, people continued to move at rates comparable to 2019
Top Five Destination Cities
- Phoenix
- Houston
- Dallas
- Atlanta
- Denver
Top Five Exodus Cities
- New York
- Anaheim, Calif.
- San Diego
- Chicago
- Riverside, Calif.
I am disappointed the report did not have absolute numbers, making the study flawed.
Nonetheless, Idaho is interesting.
Idaho has made the top 10 each
year since 2015, most of the time on the top of the list.
Congratulations to Idaho and of course Illinois in reverse, a state I have written about many times.
Q: Why does it take 3 weeks to leave Illinois?
A: Everyone is leaving and that is how long it took to schedule a one-way van out.
“Everyone is leaving. No one is coming,” a U-Haul agent told us.
We love it here in Utah. The photo opportunism are endless. There are 7 national parks within 5 hours or so of where we live.
Mish
The reality is that the blue states are in trouble because their residents have to pay the same taxes twice — once to subsidize the red states (who feast on a gusher of federal tax money) and once again to pay for their own services.
Illinoisans, for example, see about 1/3 of their federal taxes go to other states that use the money to artificially lower their own taxes. If that money stayed in state, they’d have a surplus and no financial problems. They’d be able reduce real estate and income taxes by enormous amounts, but Indiana, Iowa and other states leeching off of them would have to raise taxes.
Once NY, CA, NJ, and MI go broke, the red states like FL, IA, IN, and the Carolinas are going to face an enormous fiscal crisis.
The only “red” state that won’t is Texas. And TX will be in the same situation IL and NY are in today, as they become huge net payers to red states and have to increase taxes to cover their own needs.
Sooner or later the red states need to develop an innovation economy and start paying their own way. Their demands for massive federal redistributionism, while then claiming to be smartly run, work on the ignorant, but they won’t fix things when the blue states pull the plug.
Figures that are not normalized for state population are pretty meaningless. 10K people leaving say, NH, is a lot different than 10K leaving NY.
If you love Utah why do you vote liberal mish
“People in Five States Say Get Me Outta Here”
How soon until it is all 50?
I grew up in Texas, live in California and have lived in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. I haven’t stopped getting wealthier no matter where I lived both in the pocketbook and the experiences life has to offer coast to coast. At the end of the day, we picked California for the very fact that growth IS slowing here. 10 years ago we decided against Texas because they don’t care about rampant growth or quality of life for the people that already lived there. Houses as far as the eye could see. It is reminiscent of California in the 1990s. This past week I went the mountains to the go snowboarding when it was 70 degrees at sea level. It was a 1 hour drive. I guess if you can’t afford to live here or find a job and a life that works for you then I can understand why you would leave. The only risk here is the wildfires going forward. That may eventually drive us out of the state but the last time California had droughts as bad as they’ve had the last 10 years, there was a biblical flood of rain for decades after that. California won’t be able to tax their way out of anything but this is a good thing and a check on everything. Literally every tax measure has been voted down in 2020. My guess is California will get someone like Faulconer as governor at some point. Someone who is socially liberal but fiscally conservative and believes in jobs programs for the masses. He isn’t your typical Republican and is likely what the Republican party needs going forward. These political cycles have long swings in the pendulum. In any case, I think there are 50 states and plenty of places to pick and choose from no matter who you are. I am glad for that. And leaving a place doesn’t mean you can’t go back.
“We call that white privlige round here”, or whatever privilege you had that taught you a value system where you can win wherever you go. You have, I have it, and Denzel Washington has it.
There are a lot of people that dont, and never will. We need to respect that and live in Blue states where they will take increasing amounts of our money and give it to people that live in communities that lack values like marrying and staying married to women that you impregnate. Further, they will give it to police officers and firemen who abuse those communities, and in some case allow for said individuals to collect a pension and a wage from the same line of work simultaneously. All of this totally makes sense, no idea why anyone is complaining.
Anyone surprised the garbage liberal states are the ones they’re leaving? And where are they going, to good used to be conservative states. Soon they will turn those states garbage blue. I highly doubt those figures are correct. Vegas has an over load of the moving in, so does AZ I watch these markets daily. RE prices in the area’s I know are booming. Good for me, but bad for the states in general. They always bring their failed political views with them. You’d think if they had just a half of a brain they would vote the other way.
30 miles from the California coast is where everyone lives. If you travel out further it’s pretty much a different state. Every tax in Cal. is among the highest in the nation. Gas prices are a full dollar higher at least. Schools are among the lowest rated on average.(LA county). Other than the WEATHER the place is an overpopulated retail center. Yes we have had enough too after 50 years.
All these arguments about taxes have some truth in them…..but the devil is in the details of the specific individual.
If you own a ten million buck mansion in Texas, in most areas you’re gonna pay a hell of lot of property tax.
If you put the same $10M into fifty 200K rental properties, the tax just becomes another expense item, and the tenants are going to pay it anyway. It’s a cost of doing business.
In general, you can pay some fairly high property taxes on your own house, and still come out better than paying some 5% state income tax. Do the math.
I’m not sure about many things in the future…but one thing I am willing to bet is that Texas will never have a state income tax…at least in my lifetime.
Mish, the latest stats for California showed positive population growth rate of 0.05%; so strictly speaking California’s population is not shrinking. However, with US population growth rate of 2.1% p.a then California’s share of the population is shrinking… Nice to be both right and wrong
Yes. And it is maybe true that people moving into California on average have higher salaries than people leaving. Maybe by far. I don’t have a fact or survey handy to back that up; just conjecture.
Illegals moving in Americans moving out.
When I moved to CA in 2000 the population was 29 million. Today, twenty years later, it’s 39 million. So much for the mass exodus. Also, Texas sounds great until you realize they have some of the highest property taxes in the nation. You pay one way or the other.
Ah you expose that dirty little secret of Texas! Eventually they will have a state income tax to compliment their property taxes.
By the way, you are right as well, you pay one way or another. In Illinois, I paid something like $78 to license my car. In Missouri, I pay a personal property tax, a safety inspection fee, and then the license fee before my car is legally allowed on the road. It’s not all rainbows in red state America.
Texas would not be my choice for sure but would be way up the list compared to CA. Much better states out there to live in.
Odd they are going to states that are dependent on government largesse.
I am part of the Chicago exodus like you Mish. Your article reminds me of sitting on an airplane on another business trip many, many years ago. Two men were behind me discussing where they were from. One was from Chicago, and the other from New York. The gentleman from New York said he loved visiting Chicago (which I still believe is a great city that offers lots if you can get past the taxes and liberal policies), but he noted living in New York had one advantage–easy escape to the mountains and a happier place. Where in Illinois, all you have is corn fields for miles and miles. Hard to escape the reality of the city for what you now enjoy living outside of the Chicago area.
I left almost 14 years ago. I love visiting, but I could never move back to Chicago.
I think that this source might be a bit shaky. According to official figures from the state govt the population of Calif grew in the last year – albite at a very slow rate. And it has grown every year for the last 100 years. I live in AZ and am familiar with the arrivals from CA into our community. Retirees seeking lower costs and youngin’s moving for work (though that is cramped right now). Those folks are the biggest driver that is turning AZ into a purple/blue state since they are overwhelmingly not AZ conservative in inclination. When I first moved to AZ the locals were all happy about folks moving in and just assumed that they were coming because they liked the AZ conservative outlook on life (I just keep my mouth shut and chuckled). Now they realize it had nothing to do with it and the newcomers are setting about ‘fixing’ all the things about AZ they don’t like – and they are not at all happy about it. The governorship is next in line and it is going to be very close.
I live in AZ. Yeah, almost time to move.
TooDone, you don’t have to move out of state, many area’s are red as heck. It’s a great state you just have to move out of the cities. Love AZ, so many great places to go. Then up north is Utah another nice state to visit, wouldn’t want to live there most of the year but a nice state.
The “outbound” is from Blue States (Democrat) and they are “inbound” to Red States (Republican) . Reverse the colors- please.
I do have friends – retired teachers who taught in Zion Illinois, have been retired for 30 years with a fatcat pension (over $4,000 each/month) and great bennies – who moved to TN for the lower property taxes and no State income tax. As with most Government Employees, there retirements are “qualified plans” under IRS 401(a) and thus can avoid paying State income tax by moving to a State without an income tax. It’s wrong, because the source of the income is still Illinois, but it’s the law, and the biggest reason why Government Employees flee the tax hell States they created/benefit from.
At the same time, wonderful Joe Biden plans to make the entire U.S. like California –
Already is! Huge debts, souring taxes and people think their house value skyrocketing is a good thing until they get their tax bill. Left and right is the biggest scam in the world 🌎.
California has the high tech economy that leads the world. Many countries would love to have California’s GDP. For this need to attack CA, when the last president boasted of his economic numbers, you can’t leave out the economic activity of California that boosts these numbers do POTUS can brag.
Red states turning blue…
LOL, blue. Its like destroying your planet and then moving to go destroy a new planet!
Democrats are like the Borg on Star Trek.
If Red state economics worked so well it wouldn’t have to turn blue. Why is is that red states have to go to blue states to steal employers and jobs ? Can’t they come up with industries and companies of their own. This is what makes California the innovator it is. Mature companies leave and new ones come up.
Let’s hope those people remember WHY they let their previous state odf domicile and don’t make the same mistakes in their new one…. I doubt seriously they will and pretty soon those states will be blue as your map portrays.
In the past, they have not changed the politics blue. Is it because they were Republicans that got frustrated and moved? Is it because they wanted a different approach? Is it because they got there and liked how it worked? Is it because they got there and were “re-educated”? Who knows? I certainly don’t, but do know that people have been moving to Texas for at least 50 years.
I miss Utah. It’s only the second time in 20 years that I wasn’t there for New Years. I hope the vaccine will prove to make travel safer, so that we can still get a few days in skiing.
Glad to see Austin is not on any of your lists…..but it doesn’t matter, Zillow says we’re number one. Gotta love the internet.
I don’t miss Utah for a single second. We used to joke that the state motto is “Life is cheap.”
Yeah, but you can’t beat the powder skiing in Little Cottonwood Canyon…it’s the lake effect. And Alta is about the last place on earth with no snowboarders.
Austin is the fastest growing housing market in the country. Houses as far as the eye can see. Is there still any land left to build on between Austin and San Antonio ? When I was a kid in Texas, my sociology professor predicted megalopolis’s all over Texas. That was in 1992. Must almost be there by now.
I expect to see the Austin-San Antonio corridor completely filled in…in my lifetime. New Braunfels is red hot.
Austin has lots of room to grow northwest along the 183 corridor. Round Rock is growing NE along the 71 corridor….and the 130 tollway is another new north-south corridor running through far East Austin.
It won’t be space that limits growth….It will be traffic.
San Juan County Utah calls itself “The World’s Largest Outdoor Museum.” I’ve been to 4 of Utah’s 5 Nat’l Parks and several State Parks. Utah, California and Hawai’i are off the charts beautiful.
I’m glad people are leaving my home of California. I would gladly retire or relocate to North Carolina.
These migrations will hasten the demise of conservatism, turning red states purple then blue.
On the eve of history and a return to sanity, may conservatives adapt, lest they die out.
Can’t eat the scenery and if you live where you are entirely dependent upon climate-controlled interior spaces for large portions of the year…
If you’re moving from New York to South Carolina odds are you are either retired or low skilled.
or tired of winter….
or have a good meth recipe…
…South Carolina had the second-highest number of clandestine meth labs reported in the nation in 2016, according to the most recent annual DEA threat assessment report. The federal numbers come from data that is reported by each state and each state can use different criteria for what makes up a meth lab.
Meth is now so common and readily available that local meth cooks have been largely pushed aside by the Mexican meth, according to local and federal law enforcement agencies….
….meth comes into South Carolina in two paths: One is straight to the Upstate via Interstate 85, and the other is through Columbia and Charleston, where significant drug cartel activity has been noted by the DEA. The Jalisco Nueva Generacion Los Cuinis drug cartel faction has operations in those two cities, according to the latest DEA drug threat assessment. …
UHaul has Ohio at #4 and Missouri at #7 just ahead of Nevada.
Will be interesting to look at this in five years. People move, but miss the perks, seasons, whatever. Our numbers small but given demand curve we are off the charts.
RE: People’s expectation that TX no tax is the way to go. Been there, live there. Let me point out the TX experiment ONLY WORKS IF YOU ARE ASURADLY ON THE UP AND UP. (And able to handle HIGH road tolls for their paved jungle and NO serious mass transit.)
SHOULD you need anything – AND INEVITABLY YOU WILL AT SOME POINT – there’s a reason TX has no State tax – THEY DON’T PAY CRAP FOR BASIC SUPPORTS.
TX IS LAST (NOT SECOND TO LAST – LAST!), LAST IN THE NATION IN:
Nursing Home Care. NP if you don’t get old
Mental Health Care (moreover the State has backwards laws that’ll care this benefit support OUT OF EVEN REGULAR NORMAL POLICIES (say BC/BS) so IT’LL ALL BE OUT OF POCKET FOR MOST. Need a regular Med, say basic generic anti-depressant? State law prevents your regular Dr from being able to write even 1 script for you. (This unnecessary restriction is clearly a gift for the mental Dr’s.)
Unemployment? Plan on waiting months and > 60 calls a day for days to TRY and catch someone.
On, and on. TX doesn’t fund s*** but highways w/ digital tag readers to pay for it.
I lived there from 96 to 04 and loved it. When I moved to Arlington in 96 I was proudly told it was the largest city in America with no mass transit. The reason was that they wanted the minimum requirement to live there to be ability to own and drive a car. As someone who owned and drove a car, that worked for me.
Texas is absolutely 100% for people who are self starters and self reliant. It’s not the place to move to if you require / expect a lot of government help / assistance.
In the smaller towns people still regularly attend church and help their older parents which is why there fewer nursing homes than elsewhere. The big cities (Dallas/Houston/Austin) are WAY different especially now than rural Texas (where there are zero toll roads).
I’d like the reaction of “self reliant” Texans if the federal government declines to provide emergency aid during a hurricane, eliminates agriculture subsidies, or cuts Social Security payouts.
My guess is all those “self reliant” Texans will be singing the Internationale within fifteen minutes.
The right wing narrative of “self reliance” is one of the biggest lies in our society today, not to mention easily one of the most tedious.
Lot of people moving to the Coachella Valley, CA. Property values have skyrocketed, Newport Beach, CA is the same
According to this…
Texas has the 3rd highest tax revenue. Behind California and New York. Shoots your theory to hell.
Total tax revenue means little. Tax revenue per capita means lots. TX is ranked 50 and 49 in tax revenue per capita and tax as a % of personal income.
I lived in CO from 2003 to 2017. Blew up while I was there, so much so that the locals who whined about it considered me one of the old guard by the time I left.
Where I grew up in small town Ohio, you weren’t local unless your grandparents were born there.
Ha! I lived in NH for 7 years. Your family needs to have lived there for about 300 years to be accepted.
I feel sorry for CO… Liberals are like locusts