Americans flocked to southern states in 2024, according to U-Haul’s growth index, s South Carolina for the first time at the top of the list of moving destinations.
Arrivals accounted for 51.7% of total one-way U-Haul traffic in and out of the state, according to report published on Thursday.
Texas, which had reigned as the state with the highest U-Haul growth for three years in a row, fell to second place last year. North Carolina took third place.
“The Carolinas is a great place to live,” said Jason Hardin, U-Haul’s regional vice president for the Carolinas and Georgia. “We have Southern charm. We have a lot of history here. We have beaches. We have mountains. We have a low cost of living.”
Coastal living without the high prices found in other states, combined with warm weather and Southern charm, could motivate people to move to the Carolinas, said U-Haul CEO Jason Hardin. (Visions of America/Joseph Sohm/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
The outlook was less sunny in the Golden State, which ranked last on U-Haul’s growth index for the fifth year in a row.
U-Haul calculates each state’s net gain (or loss) from customers using one-way rentals. The company said it records more than 2.5 million one-way truck, trailer and moving container transactions each year in all 50 states.
The 2024 transactions “reaffirm customer trends that have been evident for some time,” U-Haul International President John “JT” Taylor said in a statement.
“Migrations to the Southeast and Southwest continue as families evaluate cost of living, job opportunities, quality of life and other factors,” Taylor said in a statement. “Outmigration remains prevalent in a number of markets across the Northeast, Midwest and West Coast – and especially in California.”
Florida and Tennessee ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, among the leading growth states. Arizona, Washington, Indiana, Utah and Idaho rounded out the top 10.
Americans flocked to southern states in 2024, according to U-Haul’s annual growth index. (Photo via Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
AMERICANS RUSHED FROM LARGE METROPOLITAN TO THIS SOUTHERN ‘FORMER PARTITION’
U-Haul rankings are not directly correlated with population or economic growth – after three years of decline, Population of California it rose last year, according to estimates from the US Census Bureau.
However, the company says its Growth Index offers insight into how well states and cities are attracting and retaining residents.
Hardin said many of the people he sees moving to the Carolinas come from the Northeast seeking warmer weather and from California seeking a lower cost of living.
“There’s no reason why you don’t want to move here,” Hardin added in a video shared by U-Haul.
Hardin also noted the abundance of entertainment and sports opportunities in the Carolinas, as well as job growth in manufacturing, healthcare and technology.
In August, Meta announced plans to build its first data center in South Carolina. The following month, Google announced a $3.3 billion plan to expand its existing data center and add two new campuses, according to local news.
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The country is also trying to position itself as a global power electric vehicle and battery production.
