Texas and the Carolinas continue to attract the most new residents from individuals who move to a different state while California and New York are the big losers, according to a new analysis of domestic migration patterns from Apartment List.
“From 2023 to 2024, states with some of the nation’s largest, densest and most expensive population centers continued to lose population to states in the Sun Belt and Mountain West regions,” the report stated, citing Census data.
Apartment List’s own data showed that 39% of its users were searching in the same state but in a different metro, while a quarter were searching out of state locations – trends that are fairly stable.
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The states with the largest net domestic migration outflows in the period were California, New York (121,000), Illinois (56,000), New Jersey (36,000) and Massachusetts (27,000). California alone lost 240,000 residents, but an influx of 361,000 international arrivals and a natural increase of 110,000 more births than deaths meant that the state’s population continued to grow.
However, as a percentage of its population (-0.6%), Hawaii saw the biggest outflow of domestic migrants.
The biggest beneficiaries of net domestic population inflows were Texas (85,000), North Carolina (82,000), South Carolina (68,000), Florida (64,000) and Tennessee (48,000). In percentage terms, South Carolina had the largest net domestic population inflow for the third consecutive year. It was followed by Idaho, which saw a population boom after the pandemic. The population of Texas grew by over 500,000 in the period, with international migration (320,000) and births (229,000) included.
Data for California shows searchers interested in moving out of state focused most on other western states like Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Washington, and Colorado. Searchers based in New York targeted especially New Jersey, Florida, Texas, California, and Massachusetts.
Searchers from other states considering moves to Texas were drawn most heavily from California, Florida, New York, Illinois and Louisiana. Those considering moves to North Carolina were most likely to be based in Virginia, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and New York.
The analysis in Apartment List’s report is based on apartment searches by its users rather than completed moves.
The most popular metros for out-of-state searchers were Durham, NC. Charleston, SC, Bridgeport, CT, Knoxville, TN, Ogden, UT, Stockton, CA, Colorado Springs, CO, Greenville, SC, Lakeland, FL, and Greensboro, NC.
“Another trend represented on this list is renters priced out of the nation’s most expensive markets searching in more affordable neighboring markets – for example, from San Francisco to Stockton, CA, from New York City to Bridgeport, CT, and from Denver to Colorado Springs,” the report commented.
It noted, however, that established migration patterns could change if remote work falls out of favor, especially in markets that don’t offer competitive wages.
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