If you live in one of these yellow states, you may be asking yourself, “Where have all the people gone?” According to United Van Lines’ 36 annual “migration” study, the Northeast region has the most outbound residents and Washington D.C. leads for inbound movers.

“As the nation’s largest household goods mover, United’s data is an accurate reflection of the overall U.S. moving trends,” explained Carl Walter, Vice President of United Van Lines. “Tracking the number of inbound and outbound domestic moves helps provide insight into overall migration trends.”

United has tracked migration patterns annually on a state-by-state basis since 1977. This study in particular highlights only the household goods moves. They are determined to either be “high inbound” or “high outbound” if over 55% or more of the moves are going into or out of each state.

Top 5 Inbound States for 2012
  1. District of Columbia
  2. Oregon
  3. Nevada
  4. North Carolina
  5. South Carolina
Top 5 Outbound States for 2012
  1. New Jersey
  2. Illinois
  3. West Virginia
  4. New York
  5. New Mexico
The District of Columbia has been the leader for inbound moves for the last five years. New Jersey, however, knocked the previous leader (Illinois) for outbound moves. According to Michael Stoll, economist, professor, and chair of the Department of Public Policy at the University of California, Los Angeles, “The United Van Lines Annual Migration study shows the movement of people from frost belt to more sun belt states in the South and West. While big states such as California, Texas, and Florida have more total moves than other states because of their sheer size, other high inbound states such as Washington D.C., Oregon, and the Carolinas may be attractive places to move because of their lower housing costs, more temperate climate, diversified and growing economies, as well as maturing manufacturing bases and high technology clusters.”

Overall, it’s no surprise that some of these states are on this list. I could speculate that everyone’s moving out of Jersey thanks to “Jersey Shore” or that everyone loved D.C. in 2012 because it was an election year. The truth is, it’s much harder to find the reasons why we do what we do, but with the data of how we move, Blackhawk Moving & Storage is better able to determine its market needs and in turn, provide ever-improving moving service to our clients.