The weather has been crappy in many places up north lately.
But it’s arguable, if not likely, that a blizzard of relentless liberal politics is driving people out of blue states and into red ones.
U-Haul released its annual report on interstate moves, and the hottest destinations, not just for the weather, are down South, predominantly in Texas and Florida.
“Migration to southern states continues to be magnified by the lingering pandemic, and no state netted more U-Haul® customers during the last year than Texas,” the company said in a press release.
“The Lone Star State earned bragging rights as the leading growth state of 2021, narrowly besting Florida for top honors, according to transactional data compiled for the annual U-Haul Growth Index,” the statement continued.
According to U-Haul, Tennessee ranked third, followed in the top five growth states by South Carolina and Arizona.
Two other red states – Indiana and Idaho – were also in the top 10. The other three were Colorado, Maine, and New Mexico.
U-Haul said its Growth Index is based on the number of one-way rentals to and from a given state. The analysis is based on 2 million truck rentals a year.
As the company pointed out in its press release, “While U-Haul migration trends do not correlate directly to population or economic growth, the U-Haul Growth Index is an effective gauge of how well cities are both attracting and maintaining residents.”
Over the past six years, Texas has claimed the top spot four times. In the other two years, Florida and Tennessee ranked No. 1.
“We see a lot of growth coming from the East and West Coast,” Matt Merrill, U-Haul Area District Vice President of the Dallas Fort-Worth Metroplex and West Texas, said in the press release.
“A lot of people moving here from California (and) New York. We also see a lot of people coming in from the Chicago markets. I think that’s a lot due to the job growth – a lot of opportunity here. The cost of living here is much lower than those areas. Texas is open for business.”
“The Texas economy is growing fast,” Kristina Ramos, president of the U-Haul Company of South Austin, said in the press release. “With a strong job market and low cost of living, it’s a no-brainer. Texas doesn’t have an income tax, so families get more for their money.”
Among individual cities as destinations, Florida claimed 10 of the top 25 most popular relocation sites, twice as many as Texas.
According to U-Haul, Kissimmee-St. Cloud was the most desired place in the country among movers, followed in Florida by Palm Bay-Melbourne (3rd), North Port (4), Fort Myers (6), Clermont (9), Sarasota-Bradenton (10), Daytona Beach (11), Port St. Lucie (13), Brandon-Riverview (19), and Ocala (24).
Meanwhile, about those blue states.
“California is 50th and Illinois 49th on the list for the second consecutive year, indicating those states once again witnessed the largest net losses of one-way U-Haul trucks,” U-Haul said in its release.
“California remained the top state for out-migration, but its net loss of U-Haul trucks wasn’t as severe as in 2020. That can be partially attributed to the fact that U-Haul simply ran out of inventory” – that is, trucks – “to meet customer demand for outbound equipment.”
Also near the bottom were New York (45th), Massachusetts (47th) and Pennsylvania (48th).
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