Which Cities Are Renters Moving to and Which Are They Fleeing?

Sorry Disney fans: Orlando, Florida, is not the happiest place on earth, according to Apartment List’s latest renter migration report. With many residents bogged down by low-wage jobs and high rents, the city tops the list of places renters are trying to escape. On the other side of the spectrum, Denver stands tall. Its booming economy bolstered by tech jobs is attracting a wave of renters, and the gorgeous mountain views do not hurt its case, either. Here are the top cities where renters are moving and the top ones where renters cannot wait to leave.

Looking for a new city to call home? Consider Denver. According to Apartment List’s latest renter migration report, this mountain city is the top metro where renters are moving right now.

Apartment List came to this finding by analyzing millions of searches for apartments on its site from June 1, 2019, through Dec. 31, 2019. And, since searching for an apartment and actually moving are different things, the report also factored in which cities were retaining and losing their population, too.

So why did Denver top the list? You can thank the area's tech boom, for starters.

“Denver's economy has been booming for a number of years now, with significant growth in its tech industry specifically,” Chris Salviati, housing economist at Apartment List, told realtor.com. “The metro has added a significant number of jobs for highly educated workers, which generally pay high salaries.”

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