PHOENIX, Jan. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- If you're of
the opinion Tennessee is a fun
place to visit and would be a beautiful spot to live, take a number
and get in line. U-Haul® customers are well ahead of you.
Where does your state rank for attracting new residents? See the
top 50 rankings based on U-Haul migration data in 2020.
The Volunteer State posted the largest net gain of U-Haul®
trucks crossing its borders in 2020, making it the No. 1 U-Haul
growth state for the first time.
Growth states are calculated by the net gain of one-way U-Haul
trucks entering a state versus leaving that state in a calendar
year. Migration trends data is compiled from more than 2 million
one-way U-Haul truck customer transactions that occur annually.
Tennessee's influx of
do-it-yourself movers during a turbulent year marked by the
coronavirus pandemic means that a state other than Florida and Texas tops the growth rankings for the first
time since 2015, when North
Carolina led the way.
U-Haul customers made Texas and
Florida their top two destinations
from 2016-19. Texas had the
largest net gain of one-way U-Haul trucks for three consecutive
years before Florida flipped the
order and became No. 1 last year. Texas is second for growth, and Florida third, for 2020.
Ohio, Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nevada, North
Carolina and Georgia round
out the top 10 states for 2020 growth as self-movers continue to
migrate to the Southeast, as well as markets in the Southwest,
Midwest and Rocky Mountain regions.
California ranks last by a wide
margin, supplanting Illinois as
the state with the greatest net loss of U-Haul trucks. California has ranked 48th or lower since
2016. Illinois has been 49th or
50th since 2015, when U-Haul began ranking states based on annual
net gain.
"I'm seeing a lot of people from California move (to Tennessee) because they're attracted to our
lifestyle," noted Jeff Porter,
U-Haul Company of Nashville
president. "Tennessee has no
income tax and is very business-friendly. There are plenty of jobs.
People and companies are taking note. Places like Nashville, Murfreesboro and Clarksville are attracting tons of new
residents. Nashville is
ever-growing, and even the era of COVID-19 isn't slowing that. We
were seeing movement before the virus hit, but I think the
situation has pushed a lot more people away from the West Coast to
our state."
East and Central Tennessee are
enjoying the biggest gains in U-Haul arrivals. The top growth
cities include Knoxville, the
Tri-Cities, Cookeville,
Clarksville, Cleveland, Murfreesboro and Maryville.
Arrivals of one-way U-Haul trucks into Tennessee jumped 12% while departures rose
only 9% over 2019, with that disparity catapulting it up the
charts. Arrivals accounted for 50.6% of all one-way U-Haul traffic
in Tennessee, which ranked No. 12
among growth states a year ago.
"The best thing about Tennessee
is the southern hospitality. People are decent to one another,"
said Clay McQuade, U-Haul Company of
Knoxville president. "I believe
the draw to Tennessee is the rural
atmosphere. The government is still not so oppressive on zoning and
regulation, so people are able to build, and cities are friendly to
business. Tourism is a big draw in this region, mostly for the
Great Smoky Mountains. There's plenty to do outdoors.
"U-Haul is growing right alongside the state. We just added
adaptive reuse conversions of closed Kmart® stores for new
facilities in Kingsport and
Bristol, and are currently
building a ground-up store in Knoxville to meet customer demand for our
products and services."
While U-Haul migration trends do not correlate directly to
population or economic growth, the Company's growth data is an
effective gauge of how well cities and states are attracting and
maintaining residents.
U-Haul is the authority on migration trends thanks to its
expansive network that blankets all 50 states and 10 Canadian
provinces. The geographical coverage from more than 22,000 U-Haul
truck- and trailer-sharing locations provides a comprehensive
overview of where people are moving like no one else in the
industry.
Find local U-Haul stores and neighborhood dealers at
uhaul.com/locations.
2020: STATES RANKED BY MIGRATION GROWTH
1.
|
Tennessee
(12)
|
2.
|
Texas (2)
|
3.
|
Florida
(1)
|
4.
|
Ohio (7)
|
5.
|
Arizona
(20)
|
6.
|
Colorado (42)
|
7.
|
Missouri
(13)
|
8.
|
Nevada
(24)
|
9.
|
North
Carolina (3)
|
10.
|
Georgia
(16)
|
11.
|
Arkansas
(23)
|
12.
|
Indiana
(9)
|
13.
|
Wisconsin
(41)
|
14.
|
Oklahoma
(14)
|
15.
|
South Carolina
(4)
|
16.
|
West
Virginia (22)
|
17.
|
Utah (8)
|
18.
|
Kentucky
(37)
|
19.
|
Montana
(26)
|
20.
|
Minnesota
(15)
|
21.
|
Kansas
(18)
|
22.
|
Alabama
(6)
|
23.
|
New
Hampshire (31)
|
24.
|
Iowa (30)
|
25.
|
South
Dakota (28)
|
26.
|
Vermont
(10)
|
27.
|
Delaware
(21)
|
28.
|
Virginia
(39)
|
29.
|
Maine (33)
|
30.
|
Idaho (11)
|
31.
|
Mississippi
(25)
|
32.
|
Nebraska
(19)
|
33.
|
Wyoming
(27)
|
34.
|
Alaska
(17)
|
35.
|
Rhode
Island (35)
|
36.
|
Washington
(5)
|
37.
|
North
Dakota (32)
|
38.
|
Washington, D.C.
(38)*
|
39.
|
New
Mexico (36)
|
40.
|
Michigan
(48)
|
41.
|
Pennsylvania
(46)
|
42.
|
New
York (43)
|
43.
|
Connecticut
(34)
|
44.
|
Louisiana
(40)
|
45.
|
Oregon
(29)
|
46.
|
Maryland
(45)
|
47.
|
Massachusetts
(47)
|
48.
|
New
Jersey (44)
|
49.
|
Illinois
(50)
|
50.
|
California
(49)
|
* Previous year's rankings in parentheses. Washington, D.C. is its own U-Haul market and
is listed among growth states for migration trends purposes.
Hawaii is not included since
state-to-state truck transactions are inapplicable.
About U-Haul
Since 1945, U-Haul has been the No. 1 choice of
do-it-yourself movers, with a network of 22,000 locations across
all 50 states and 10 Canadian provinces. U-Haul Truck Share 24/7
offers secure access to U-Haul trucks every hour of every day
through the customer dispatch option on their smartphones and our
proprietary Live Verify technology. Our customers' patronage has
enabled the U-Haul fleet to grow to approximately 176,000 trucks,
127,000 trailers and 41,000 towing devices. U-Haul offers nearly
774,000 rentable storage units and 66.7 million square feet of
self-storage space at owned and managed facilities throughout
North America. U-Haul is the
largest installer of permanent trailer hitches in the automotive
aftermarket industry, and is the largest retailer of propane in the
U.S.
Contact:
Jeff
Lockridge
Sebastien Reyes
E-mail: publicrelations@uhaul.com
Phone: 602-760-4941
Website: uhaul.com
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SOURCE U-Haul