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No state taxes, balmy weather year-round, a seemingly endless list of entertainment options, a “colorful, lawless swamp,” as Michael Scott once said, the Florida mystique continues to lure scores of new residents to her shores.
For the 11th consecutive year, U-Haul’s data has ranked Florida among the top five most popular moving destinations. The Sunshine State jumped North and South Carolina into the second spot behind Texas. In the annual study, U-Haul looked at one-way rentals to determine which states saw the highest influx of apparent movers and provided insight into the driving forces behind the data.
“We continue to find that life circumstances — marriage, children, a death in the family, college, jobs and other events — dictate the need for most moves,” U-Haul International president John (J.T.) Taylor said in the study. “But other factors can be important to people who are looking to change their surroundings. In-migration states are often appealing to those customers.”
U-Haul further breaks down the cities that lead the way for growth, with Fort Lauderdale topping the list for South Florida at number seven, behind places like Ocala (first) and Kissimmee (fourth). The company ranked Miami 24th in their ranking of most popular metro destinations, behind places like Lakeland (11th), Palm Bay (13th), Jacksonville (18th), and Port St. Lucie (19th).
Mario Martinez, South Florida’s U-Haul area district vice president, said in the study, “Florida has opportunities for work, no state taxes, and great weather year-
round. It’s also a great place to start and raise a family. You have all types of activities across the state, and good schools from preschool to universities.
“We see a lot of people moving here from the Northeast. We have an endless number of retirees coming to Florida,” he said in the study. “They come for a better quality of life, warm weather and a laid-back lifestyle. It’s a melting pot of people here.”
While a U-Haul spokesperson told New Times that they, for proprietary reasons, couldn’t share the underlying data showing exactly how many one-way movers came to Florida last year, the company noted more than 2.5 million one-way transactions across the U.S. and Canada.
