More People Moved to This New England State in '23 Than Any Other

Since the pandemic, we have seen an astronomical amount of people relocating, and the majority of them are choosing smaller, more rural cities as their jobs allowed them to work remotely. In a lot of situations, the change can be permanent.

Being a realtor in Southern Maine, I've witnessed the number of out-of-staters relocating here since 2020 being off the charts, but since inventory has been diminishing across the country, those numbers for both out-of-staters and locals finding new homes has also substantially decreased. Maine still has a lot of people migrating to our state, but surprisingly, we didn't make the list this year, possibly due to low inventory.

United Van Lines conducted their annual National Movers Study, which indicates the most popular states that people are relocating to. It also supplies data on the top states that people are moving out of.

The trend has shown that not only do people want to relocate to more rural areas to live less of a city life, but they are also saving money and be closer to family. According to United Van Lines, more residents moved to Vermont than any other state – for a third year in a row. Their numbers show that 65% of VT's home sale transactions are people moving into the state, likely as a result of the scenic beauty, education, quality of life, and escaping the big city life.

On the other side of the data, the study found that more people moved out of New Jersey in 2023 than any other state. This has been the trend for the last six years. According to United Van Lines, the #1 reason is people are looking to retire, and clearly, the Garden State is not the place for that.