(The Center Square) – Colorado plummeted 31 spots last year in a growth ranking based on U-Haul equipment rentals.
The Centennial State ranked 40th in 2024, down from 9th in 2023, according to the most recent U-Haul Growth Index released on Friday.
The moving rental company, headquartered in Phoenix, measures growth in the index “by each state’s net gain (or loss) of customers utilizing one-way U-Haul equipment in a calendar year.” U-Haul said it pulls its data from over 2.5 million rentals annually.
Southern states held all the top spots in the index, indicating people continue to move to the region. South Carolina, Texas, North Carolina, Florida and Tennessee were the top-five states for move-ins in 2024, according to U-Haul.
“State-to-state transactions from the past year reaffirm customer tendencies that have been pronounced for some time,” U-Haul International President J.T. Taylor said in a statement. “Migration to the Southeast and Southwest continues as families gauge their cost of living, job opportunities, quality of life and other factors that go into relocating to a new state.”
“Out-migration remains prevalent for a number of markets across the Northeast, Midwest and West Coast – and particularly California,” he added.
The bottom states in the index were California, which ranked 50th for the fifth straight year, Massachusetts (No. 49), New Jersey (No. 48), New York (No. 47), Pennsylvania (no. 46), and Illinois (No. 45).
