What Are the Top Factors Driving US Migration?

The U.S. mobility rate is at historic lows, so by examining the people who do move out of state, we can get to the heart of what drives Americans to relocate. And based on an analysis of migration data by StorageCafe, builders should celebrate. The main reason people are relocating is to find better housing and better neighborhoods: Build a quality house for a better price, and buyers will come. StorageCafe also examined who is moving — looking at you, Generation Xers — and where people are moving, with the top population gains awarded to cities in the Southwest.

Mobility in the US might be on a descending trend, but a sizable proportion of Americans still move every year, which has significant implications for local economies and urban dynamics.

Considering the huge impact that the moving industry has on the self-storage sector, we here at STORAGECafé identified the country’s most dynamic cities in terms of inbound migration and also looked at population changes, in order to see the major migration patterns within the US and find out whether the housing and self-storage sectors are adjusting to those patterns.

We analyzed migration data in the country’s 389 metros and ranked the 100 biggest metros for inbound migration. For each of them, we also determined the actual population change. When it comes to migration patterns, we couldn’t help but notice that the top ten metros for inbound migration account for a significant chunk of the people moving around the United States. Of the 25 million people who moved from anywhere in the US to a metro in 2017, almost 2.8 million, or 11%, headed towards one of those top 10 metros.

Read More