Report: 13% of out-of-state moves are relocations to Florida, Sarasota is a top destination

It’s no great surprise that people are moving to the Sunshine State.

Data published recently in HireAHelper’s 2020 Migration Report proves it — and reveals just how popular Florida really is. The report also calls out specific cities, Sarasota among them, as top destinations.

HireAHelper is an online platform for comparing and booking moving services. The company’s study used data from more than 25,000 moves in the U.S. booked using HireAHelper in 2019, as well as surveys and 2018 U.S. Census Bureau population estimates.

According to the report, the majority of moves in the U.S. in 2019 were local and most people – 62% — moved within their county.

For those making bigger moves across state lines, Florida was at the head of the class. The report says Florida was the top destination for people in 22 states who moved out of state in 2019. More Florida love: 13% of all out-of-state moves were relocations to Florida, the report states.

Not surprisingly, Texas was also a popular state for interstate moves, at 8%. Also popular? North Carolina, California and Georgia. As far as net gains go, Idaho was the top state, with 48% more people moving into Idaho than out of it.

When it dug deeper into specific cities, the report found Scottsdale, Ariz., was the top destination. It had twice as many people (108%) moving in compared to moving out. Next on the list was Durham, N.C., at 71.7%. Sarasota also proved its popularity, taking the third spot at 58%. Coming in close behind was Jacksonville at 55.2%.

HireAHelper says the report points to a larger trend — people are moving from big cities to make a home in smaller towns. That’s evidenced by Miami, which saw a net loss of 46%. Other big cities also lost more residents than gained, including New York City, San Francisco, Chicago and Los Angeles. City slickers nationwide, it seems, are choosing to seek out smaller cities, and places like Sarasota are seeing the impacts.