- South Carolina is the state with the most interest from movers in 2025.
- Idaho ranked third, with two cities in the top five as well.
- While not in the top 10, Utah does have a positive in-to-out ratio.
The relocation company moveBuddha recently released its latest 2025 Moving Trends Report, which analyzed searches on its website to determine trends in where people are planning to move this year.
The report shows the domestic moving trends in the U.S. for the second quarter of 2025. It used moveBuddha’s data collected between 2020 and June 30, 2025, which comes directly from the company’s “Moving Cost Calculator.”
According to the report, the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic still impacts movers today.
“Movers are still seeking out affordability and access to nature, but they’re changing what that looks like, opting for small or suburban enclaves where ‘return to work’ looks more like their remote lives once did,” per moveBuddha.
The report also shows that previously overlooked and smaller destinations are drawing in more people than bigger cities.
“This year, smaller locations are becoming more popular, with huge demand and few residents calling it quits. That means movers are very interested in just a handful of popular locales, and cities that haven’t grown in popularity this year, even if they’re maintaining strong migration interest, are falling behind,” per the report.
South Carolina tops the list with the most interest from movers
Where people are choosing to move isn’t just based on cities, as transfer taxes, land use restrictions, permitting and prevailing wages that vary state to state make some states more accessible to would-be movers.
The state with the most interest from movers is South Carolina, with a 2.20 in-to-out ratio, which shows how many people move in for every one person who moves out.
“While 2025 is only half over, the pattern is strong: it’s the 6th year in a row that movers have shown more than double the interest for moves in than out,” the report said about South Carolina.
South Carolina has a 22.56% higher in-move interest compared to North Carolina, which ranked second.
Not only is South Carolina the top state, but it is also home to the city with the most interest from movers: Conway. In second place for cities is Wake Forest, North Carolina.
Idaho ranks in the top 3 for most interest from movers
In a very different part of the country from the top two states is Idaho, which ranked third in interest from movers with a 1.66 in-to-out ratio.
Idaho is also home to two of the top five cities with the most interest from movers. In third place was Eagle, Idaho, followed by the city of Caldwell in fourth.
“At the city level, places like Conway, Wake Forest, and Eagle capture inbound movers seeking vibrant communities without the steep housing costs and congestion of larger mid-sized cities or downtown urban cores,” per the report.
How does Utah fare?
While Utah did not make the top 10 list of most interest from would-be movers, nor did any of its cities, it does have a positive in-to-out ratio.
Utah ranks 31st with an in-to-out ratio of 1.01 in 2025’s second quarter, according to moveBuddha.
Which states are people moving out of the most?
Not only did the report analyze the places that the most people are moving to, it also ranked the cities and states where the most people are moving out of, referred to as “exit states” and “exit cities.”
According to moveBuddha, the top two “exit states” are New Jersey and California, which have both been among the top three exit states since 2020. New Jersey has an in-to-out ratio of 0.61 and California’s is 0.63.
“These states, in addition to being densely populated, face affordability challenges in an America struggling with persistent inflation and pay that hasn’t kept up,” the report says. “Particularly affected are states like New Jersey, where residents pay the country’s highest property taxes, deal with exorbitant real estate and rent prices, and increasingly see corporate headquarters leave the state, taking jobs with them."
The top “exit cities” with the most people moving out are West Des Moines, Iowa, followed by two California cities, El Cajon and Palmdale.