It’s officially the season for all real estate forecasts and studies to be released from the previous year. U-Haul has stepped in to reveal their roundup for 2025, announcing similar trends from past years.
Many continue to flock towards sunbelt states from the north as older generations call states such as Texas and Florida their new homes for its politics, climate and housing markets.
What U-Haul’s 2025 roundup says
U-Haul concluded their 2025 Roundup with results that followed previous year’s trends.
The top two states for in-migration were Texas and Florida, continuing their records for staying in the top five for 10 years. Texas reclaimed its top spot after originally being dethroned last year by South Carolina. Customers arriving in Texas and Florida accounted for approximately 50% of one-way traffic in/out of each state.
The bottom five states also have stayed similar to previous years consisting of Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and California in that order.
All roads leading to the red sunbelt
Various factors contributed to the growing shift of movers between regions. Some speculate politics drove movers from blue states to red states, while others say the attraction to warmer climates played a part as well.
“Blue-to-red state migration, a hotly debated political topic that became more pronounced after the pandemic of 2020, continues to be a discernable trend,” U-Haul concluded alongside the report.
Among the top ten growth states, seven currently have Republican governors and nine went red in the last presidential election. On the other hand, nine of the bottom ten states have Democrat governors, with seven of said states going blue in the last presidential election.
HireAHelper conducted a similar report analyzing the moving trends in Texas throughout 2025 focusing on the age demographics, their income, and reasoning for their relocation.
The study found that the majority of new movers in Texas were Gen X followed by millennials. With incomes falling in the middle/upper-middle class brackets as 41% of new Texans earn between $51,000–$100,000 annually.
HireAHelper also evaluated the intent of national movers deciding their future homes being driven by transferring jobs (10.9%), wanting better housing (14.54%), and looking to work (1.34%).
Will these trends continue into 2026
2026 brings forth a new year with new possibilities. Anything can happen, however, there has been a bigger picture as the years move farther away from 2015 and the pandemic. Waves grow stronger with migrations leading towards the sunbelt. Older generations want warmer weather, better forever homes, red governments and higher paying jobs, but there is still a demand for the opposite side of the spectrum that may be slipping by in the rankings in blue northern cities.
