Americans Are Moving: But Not Necessarily In The Same Direction

Older generations are relocating to the South while Gen Z migrates to major cities with colleges, entry-level jobs and apartments, according to U-Haul’s latest migration trends report.

The report, released July 29, examined 52 weeks of one-way customer moves from July 2025 through June 2026 and organized results by generation, noting that life stage strongly influences destinations.

Baby Boomers showed the strongest net gains in the Southeast, led by South Carolina and North Carolina, followed by Florida, Arizona and Alabama—regions popular with retirees and seasonal residents.

Gen X and Millennials both favored Florida and Texas as their top two net-gain states. After that, Gen X preferred the Southeast and Mountain West (South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama), while Millennials selected California, Ohio and Idaho.

Gen Z concentrated on dense urban centers. The top five net-gain cities for the generation were New York City, Dallas, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles; Austin, Charlotte, Denver and Seattle also ranked in the top 10.

Florida was the only state to post a top-10 net gain across all four generations. Texas ranked highly for three generations (all except Baby Boomers), and Idaho appeared in the top 10 for three generations (all except Gen Z).