We wrote a blog last month with statistics about who’s moving to Arizona these days. Here’s a follow-up with some research from North American Moving Services.
Americans are moving from population centers like New York, California, and Illinois in record numbers. And one of the hottest places is our home state of Arizona.
According to research conducted for North American Moving Services, those moving in 2020 largely left the chilly northeast in search of warmer weather in the south, southwest, southeast, and many are moving to Arizona. Reasons commonly cited: harsh winters, job availability and cost of living.
Key takeaways from the study:
- People who are fleeing California mostly choose Texas, Arizona or Idaho.
- Illinois, New York and New Jersey are the three states with the most outbound moves.
- The top five states receiving movers in 2020 were 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 the pandemic, people continued to move at rates comparable to 2019
- Phoenix, Houston and Dallas were the top three cities welcoming new residents while New York City, Anaheim and San Diego saw the highest numbers of people leave.
Bigger houses for less money
Americans moving to Arizona from out-of-town last year typically paid less money for larger houses. That’s a sharp break from the trend in recent years. The housing market’s impressive strength in 2020 paired with a newfound motivation to move helped sellers cash in on quickly rising home values to find places that better suit their needs — namely, bigger homes in less-expensive areas.
For example: long-distance movers into Phoenix relocated into ZIP codes with $48,237 lower home values on average than where they moved from, and homes were generally 116 square feet larger than the movers’ origin ZIP codes.
If now’s the time for you to address those “harsh winters, job availability and cost of living,” we’re here to help you build the custom home of your dreams.
Let’s talk about it!
Picture by KTAR