What States are Americans Moving to and What it Means for the Florida Real Estate Market
While in some segments of the housing market, buying has leveled off partly in response to rising interest rates, the recent announcement by the Federal Reserve that they are unlikely to raise rates in 2019 bodes well for the current year.
The giant mortgage company, Lending Tree, conducted a survey of more than 2 million mortgage loan requests for primary residences in all 50 states. The study covered all mortgage requests nationally through the end of 2018 to determine what percentage were from residents looking to move outside their current state and to which state they are choosing to move to.
Florida was the top destination for people from 15 of the 50 states (the top choice among all states). Of all purchase mortgage requests during the period of the study, 9.1% were for Florida. But for out-of-state movers Florida represented 12.4% of mortgage requests.
Digging deeper into the survey, the findings are even better for the Sunshine State. “Of the 20 states where the residents’ most popular new location does not border their current state, 13 were in Florida,” as the state took the top spot again.
Bank Rate, a major consumer financial services company, found similar results in a remarkably similar study. The most searched out states for people planning to leave New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Connecticut was Florida. And Florida finished in the top five among people in searches for folks from California, Illinois, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Kansas.
Bank rate also studied data from Realtor.com: “Realtor.com’s visitor search data for outbound moves matched closely with U.S. census data for states that have gained population. Florida is a top destination and the only state that gained residents from all 10 states on our list, followed closely by Texas and North Carolina.”
The top five states Americans are leaving are New York, California, Illinois, New Jersey, and Louisiana.
When people move, they consider many factors: Among the most important are job opportunities, tax climate, and weather.
In this regard, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that Florida’s year over year job growth rate of 3% was the fastest in the country (the national rate was 2%).
And according to the personal finance website, Wallethub, Florida ranks fourth in sates with the lowest tax burden.
As for the weather, Florida is called the Sunshine State for a reason.