Where Are Americans Moving?

The South is rising for U.S. homebuyers looking to move to another state or region, according to a state migration study by LendingTree.

The study indicated that of the 12.1 percent homebuyers across the country who change states, most preferred to head south, with Florida being the No. 1 destination for the migrant population of 15 of the 50 states that were reviewed.

For the study, LendingTree reviewed over 2 million new purchase mortgage loan requests for primary residences in all 50 states until November 2018 to find the most popular new locations for homeowners in each state along with the states with the highest percentage of requests to move to other parts of the country.

Of all purchase mortgage requests during the study’s period, 9.1 percent were for Florida. For out-of-state movers, 12.4 percent of requests were for Florida, the study found. Texas had the highest percentage of residents looking to move within state lines with 93.4 percent of purchase mortgage requests from individuals of the Lone Star State being for properties within the state. Texas also beat Florida in the number of people from other states looking to move.

Alaska topped the list of states where residents were looking to move away with only 75.2 percent looking to stay on in the state. Washington was the preferred state for residents looking to move out of Alaska.

When adjusted for population size, the study found that South Carolina scored the highest as "mortgage loan requests were 52 percent greater than suggested by its share of the national population." Florida, Delaware, Georgia, and North Carolina were also among the top states when viewed by this metric. North Dakota led the states that were least popular by this metric followed by Hawaii, Minnesota, California, and New York.

Click here to read the full study.