Where Americans Moved in 2025: Carolinas and Idaho See Most Growth From Out-of-State Moves

Many Americans voted with their feet last year on the best places to live, creating winners and losers among the states when it comes to growth from out-of-state moves.

Relative to their population sizes, South Carolina, Idaho, and North Carolina saw the most growth in 2025 from net domestic migration, or the number of people moving in from another state minus those moving out, according to newly released U.S. Census data.

Meanwhile, the states that shrank the most from net domestic migration outflows (meaning more people moved out than in) included New York, Hawaii, Alaska, and California.

Housing affordability may play a large role in these trends, with the Carolinas ranking highly in a recent Realtor.com® study of state-by-state affordability, and the states seeing the biggest outflows among the least affordable in the nation.

"States seeing the strongest net growth tend to score better on measures of affordability and homebuilding activity, suggesting that a healthier balance between prices, incomes, and new construction is attracting newcomers and helping existing residents stay," says Realtor.com economist Jiayi Xu.

"In contrast, states experiencing the largest net outflows—such as New York, California, and Hawaii—ranked at the bottom of the affordability scores, while Alaska recorded the weakest homebuilding activity across the nation," she adds.

Separate Census data from 2024 shows that of the 189,282 people who moved to South Carolina from another state that year, 18% were from nearby North Carolina, followed by New York (10%) and Florida (10%).

Meanwhile, Idaho drew most of its movers from Washington state (25%), California, (21%), and Utah (7%).

"We are seeing buyers relocate from a wide range of states and for a variety of reasons," says Boise, ID, real estate agent Lysi Bishop, a top producer in the region who specializes in high-end properties.

Bishop tells Realtor.com that top employment draws in the Boise area include health care, jobs related to data storage manufacturer Micron, and construction work.

"Lifestyle-driven relocations included remote workers, individuals willing to commute to neighboring states for work, relocation to be near family, and retirees," she says. "A notable number of California buyers cited political considerations as a motivating factor, while buyers nationwide most frequently referenced overall quality of life." 

Florida and Texas still growing through moves, but more slowly

Meanwhile, Florida and Texas, the boom states of the COVID-19 pandemic, continued to grow through domestic migration, but at a much slower pace.

Florida gained a paltry 22,517 new residents from net domestic migration, down 93% from its peak in 2022, and the lowest annual gain since 2010, in the aftermath of the Great Recession.

Texas was also down, although not as severely, with net domestic migration of 67,299 last year, down 69% from the 2022 peak.

It's likely that the pandemic pulled forward migration to these popular states, compressing multiple years of expected migration into a shorter window.

But in Florida in particular, the orange may be losing its shine, with soaring home insurance costs discouraging some prospective residents from moving to the state.

Although Florida has made progress in reining in insurance costs through legal reforms, the state's high exposure to hurricanes means that many properties there will necessarily be expensive to insure.