Have you noticed something shifting in the places people are choosing to call home? While certain states grab all the headlines, a quieter wave of Americans is heading somewhere different. They’re not going where you’d expect. Let’s be real, a lot of people have assumptions about where folks are packing up to move, but the data might surprise you.
The Three States Everyone’s Quietly Discovering
Delaware jumped to number two on the United Van Lines 2024 National Movers Study, climbing from eleventh place just a year earlier, with more than half of those moving to the state aged sixty-five and older and thirty-six percent citing a desire to be closer to family. Meanwhile, South Carolina grabbed the number one spot on another major mover dataset. U.S. Census Bureau interstate migration estimates for July 2023 to June 2024 show South Carolina led the nation for the second consecutive year in population growth from net domestic migration at 1.26 percent, with Delaware close behind at 0.79 percent.
Alabama has consistently appeared among the top inbound states in United Van Lines data over the past five years alongside South Carolina. Here’s the thing: these three states share qualities that major movers, Census trackers, and Realtor surveys all confirm. They aren’t trendy hot spots like Austin or Phoenix. They’re places people are choosing for grounded, practical reasons, and the numbers back it up.
The Mover Data Tells a Clear Story
South Carolina ranked first on U-Haul’s Growth States of 2024 list based on one-way moving rental transactions measuring net gain. That dataset alone represents a massive footprint of American mobility. Think about it: roughly 2.5 million one-way U-Haul rentals happen every year, making this one of the largest private migration records we have.
From July 2023 to July 2024, South Carolina’s population grew at a rate of 1.7 percent, adding ninety-one thousand people to reach 5,479,000 as of July 2024. Delaware’s rise in United Van Lines rankings caught researchers off guard, honestly. Southern states remained primary draws for movers in 2025, with South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee consistently among the top inbound destinations since 2020. Alabama fits this pattern, too, showing sustained inbound momentum rather than a brief spike.
Housing Affordability Is Making the Decision Easier
Let’s talk money. States like Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana offer median home prices under two hundred thirty thousand dollars, making homeownership accessible to working families. South Carolina has an average property tax rate of 0.57 percent, one of the lowest in the country, with average annual property taxes around $2,175.93. Compare that to states where annual property tax bills climb past ten thousand dollars on a median home.
Delaware homeowners enjoy housing affordability that gets a major boost from very low property taxes, with an effective rate of less than half a percent – the fourth-lowest in the country. Much smaller shares of households in Alabama, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Iowa meet the cost-burdened threshold compared to places like California where 40.6 percent of households spend more than thirty percent of their income on housing. That’s not a trivial difference when you’re trying to build a life.
Job Growth Is Powering the Move
From October 2023 to October 2024, South Carolina added sixty-one thousand jobs, a 2.6 percent annual increase, ranking third highest in the nation. Actually, that job growth accelerated further. South Carolina ranked first in the country for twelve-month job growth in July, adding seventy-nine thousand jobs between July 2024 and July 2025, a 3.4 percent increase.
Delaware’s financial services sector, particularly credit card issuing, offers relatively strong wages. Alabama continues pulling in aerospace and automotive industry investment, creating solid employment without the explosive cost surges seen in coastal tech hubs. Louisiana and South Carolina both showed very high job opening rates in recent analyses. It’s a bit of a sweet spot, honestly: enough opportunity to make the move worthwhile without pricing out the very people filling those jobs.
Tax Policy Is Shaping Where People Land
Americans are continuing to leave high-tax, high-cost-of-living states in favor of lower-tax alternatives, with eighteen of the twenty-six states whose overall state and local tax burdens were below the national average experiencing net inbound interstate migration in fiscal year 2024. Alabama has no state income tax in many categories, and its property tax burden remains remarkably light. Alabama’s property tax rate of just 0.41 percent adds under one thousand dollars annually to housing costs, preserving affordability advantage and keeping homeownership sustainable long term.
Many Southern states feature no state income tax, including Tennessee and Texas, though Texas counters that advantage with higher property taxes. Delaware stands out differently: while it does have state income tax, the combination of low property taxes and financial services wages creates a net benefit for many families, especially retirees.
Climate and Geography Play a Bigger Role Now
Here’s where things get interesting. South Carolina’s recent population growth has primarily been driven by domestic migration, with the South being the only region to record net gains in domestic migration from 2023 to 2024, netting over sixty-eight thousand domestic migrants. People aren’t just chasing warm weather anymore. They’re weighing climate risk more carefully.
Climate risk in Florida, including risk to the housing stock, is real, which makes states like South Carolina, Delaware, and Alabama look more stable by comparison. Delaware’s coastal geography is appealing but less hurricane-prone than deeper South Atlantic stretches. Alabama’s inland areas avoid the worst coastal storm risks while keeping reasonable weather. It’s a balancing act between livability and longer-term environmental resilience.
Family Proximity Has Become the Top Motivation
For the first time in decades, the primary driver for moving interstate was a desire to be closer to family at twenty-eight percent. Honestly, I think the pandemic shifted something fundamental in how people think about distance from loved ones. The top motivation for moving to Delaware, which ranked number two for inbound moves in 2024, was a desire to be closer to family at thirty-six percent.
That same pattern shows up across all three of these states. They’re not glamorous relocations driven by adventure or career ambition alone. They’re practical choices anchored by relationships. Top motivations for moves out of New Jersey, the state with the highest outbound migration, were driven primarily by those looking to retire at twenty-two percent and wanting to be closer to family at twenty percent. Many of those families already have roots or relatives in places like Delaware, South Carolina, and Alabama, making the transition smoother.
The National Population Context Makes It Clear
The U.S. Census Bureau reported the U.S. population grew by nearly 1.0 percent between 2023 and 2024, the fastest annual growth since 2001, with the increase primarily driven by rising net international migration. Yet domestic migration – Americans moving from one state to another – is telling a different story. South Carolina is experiencing the largest influx of net domestic migration relative to its current population.
Alabama’s population increased by more than forty thousand from July 2023 to July 2024, reaching 5,157,699, according to Census estimates reported by PARCA. The University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College CBER analysis stated that forty-one of Alabama’s sixty-seven counties experienced population growth from 2023 to 2024. That spread across counties signals broad-based appeal rather than growth concentrated in a single urban center.
What People Are Actually Getting for Their Money
A National Association of Realtors 2024 report found forty-six percent of Realtors’ clients moved to the South in 2024, with top stated reasons including being closer to family and friends at thirty percent and getting more home for the money at twenty-one percent. That phrase – “more home for the money” – captures the practical calculus driving these decisions. In 2025, Americans moved to places with affordable housing and cheaper communities, as many working professionals with remote jobs relocated from expensive cities like Los Angeles or Washington, D.C., to cities like Boise or Nashville.
South Carolina, Delaware, and Alabama offer similar trade-offs: lower entry costs, lower ongoing expenses, and enough job market strength to justify the move. Home prices are rising in South Carolina, but housing remains relatively affordable, with price appreciation bringing more construction activity that is helping inventory levels rise. The supply response matters because it prevents these states from becoming the next Austin or Boise – overheated markets that defeated their own affordability advantage.
The Migration Shift Nobody Saw Coming
So what does all this add up to? Three states that weren’t on anyone’s trendy relocation list a decade ago now dominate the most credible migration datasets we have. They’re not accidents or statistical flukes. South Carolina, Delaware, and Alabama built environments where housing costs stay reasonable, jobs keep growing, and families can actually afford the life they’re trying to build.
The big coastal states will keep their allure for some, sure. These three under-the-radar states are quietly winning the competition for Americans looking for something different. What surprised you most about where people are actually moving? Does it change how you think about your own next chapter?
