The #1 Suburb Everyone Wants to Move to in America’s Biggest Metros (Fall 2025)

Suburbs in mid-sized metros dominate 2025 moving searches.
Wake Forest, NC is #1.

When they want a place to call home, many Americans head outside the inner city beltways into quieter suburbs. In fact, according to our 2025 moving survey, one-third of Americans want to live in a suburban environment this year.

Places where they might find more square footage, a sprawling yard, better schools, and ultimately, just more room to stretch out. But not all suburbs are created equal.

So, using search data from moveBuddha’s Moving Cost Calculator we found which suburbs are the most in-demand to move to this year.

These top suburbs have the highest ratio of searches for moves in-to-out of cities across their metro area (and excluding the metro’s primary city). Our final top dataset highlights 81 suburbs for which there was sufficient search data. In some cases, particularly in parts of California, these suburbs rank highly not necessarily due to a surge in inbound moves, but because they are experiencing less out-migration than other nearby areas.

So, what suburbs are Americans loving the most, by metro, for their 2025 moves?

Key Takeaways

The Top 10 Most Popular Suburbs to Move to in 2025

#1 Wake Forest, NC, is growing. This once-rural outpost, including its charming, red-brick downtown, was once considered far from the hustle and bustle of “the Triangle.” 

That’s no longer the case. Wake Forest, located less than 12 miles outside of Raleigh, is building on a decade of popularity with the strongest inbound move interest of any suburb — 2.64 inbound move searches for every searcher looking to exit. However, that popularity comes at a cost: the average home here now costs 58% more than the North Carolina average, and that 12-mile trek can take about 45 minutes. 

So while Wake Forest isn’t always best for daily commuters to Raleigh, that’s not stopping it from being the suburban destination of choice for movers headed to the Raleigh metropolitan area in 2025 (and one of the overall most popular cities for movers, too).

Nearby, Apex, NC (Durham) also cracks the top 10 at #9 with a 2.26 move in-to-out ratio—another Triangle favorite drawing families for schools, greenways, and access to RTP.

North Carolina isn't the only state with two suburbs apiece on the top ten list. Its southern sibling, along with fellow Southerner Texas, lands multiple cities on the list. #5 Greer, SC (Greenville) and #8 Summerville, SC (Charleston), join #3 Boerne, TX (near San Antonio, TX) and #7 Wylie, TX (near Dallas, TX) as the most desirable destinations close to their metro areas.

The popularity of South Carolina and Texas suburbs is part of a larger trend in which Southern states dominate in-move interest. Further, popular spots like Boerne, TX, and Greer, SC, sit near the edges of our 50km suburban cutoff, suggesting that movers may be seeking extra space, even as they stay within commuting range of a larger metro.

However, those metros don’t have to be too large.

In fact, it’s better if they’re not.

6 of the Top 10 Move-to Suburbs Orbit Mid-Sized Metros

Six of the top ten desirable suburbs are linked to mid-sized metro areas with 500K to 1.5M residents. These include Wake Forest, NC (Raleigh), Eagle, ID (Boise), Maryville, TN (Knoxville), Greer, SC (Greenville), Summerville, SC (Charleston), and Apex, NC (Durham-Chapel Hill).

They’re regions large enough to sustain job growth, airports, and cultural amenities, but where suburbs retain a unique sense of identity and space. That the majority of the most popular suburbs this year lie clustered around these cities suggests that movers are drawn to places where they’ll find opportunity, but not congestion, sprawl, or the extreme costs associated with mega-metros like Dallas or coastal hubs like Portland, OR.

4 Top Suburbs Offer Small-Town Feel Near Big Metros

The remaining four suburbs on the top-ten list orbit much larger metro areas like San Antonio, Portland, OR, Dallas, and Cincinnati. But even so, they stand out as distinct enclaves far from the urban core. 

Boerne, TX, for instance, offers historic charm that feels worlds apart from bustling San  Antonio, while Camas, WA, lies across the Columbia River, and a state border, from Portland, OR. Here, residents are far more likely to gaze at the sunset reflected off Mt. Hood rather than the lights of downtown Portland. 

Meanwhile, Florence, KY, sits at the edge of its urban region, where it retains its own character, even boasting its own “Florence, Y’all” water tower, a beacon of the hospitable South that breaks away from industrial Cincinnati. Wylie, TX, by contrast, reflects a slightly different trend. While it’s also geographically removed on the far edge of Dallas, it attracts movers less for its character than for its affordability and space.

While not every top suburb is quaint or historic, in general, the most desirable suburbs nationwide are those with their own unique personalities and strong lifestyle appeal, regardless of their commute times.

The Top Ten Suburbs with the Most Affordable Home Prices

Some of the best suburbs still offer affordability, quality of life, and room to grow without the crowds.

A distant 20 miles from Dayton’s urban core, Springfield, OH, promises easier nights out in Columbus, plus the most affordable home prices among the top move-to suburbs. The average home here will set you back approximately $187,200, 48.5% lower than the national average. That’s not because Springfield is a dying suburb: its in-to-out move ratio is a healthy 1.45, with more in-moves than those looking to leave.

But for those looking for the most affordable suburbs with more of what’s popular now — more distant ‘burbs of mid-sized cities in the South, try these other options in the top 10 most affordable: #4 Edinburg, TX (McAllen), #5 Conway, AR (Little Rock), #7 Burlington, NC (Greensboro), #8 Aiken SC (Augusta, GA), or #10 Gastonia, NC (Charlotte).

While affordability can often mean a lack of demand, 7 of the 10 most affordable suburbs here have positive net inflow, and 2 more have a balance of in and out-moves. Just Tonawanda, NY, is losing population to out-moves. 

The two cities that balance both desirability and affordability best are Florence, KY and Aiken, SC — both are among the top 15 suburbs to move to and offer home prices under 300K.

The majority of affordable suburbs prove that low costs don’t mean compromise, offering newcomers a chance to settle in growing communities without breaking the bank.

The Top Ten Suburbs with the Most Expensive Homes

Home to Stanford University, Palo Alto remains a suburb-sized incubator for multiple successful tech startups and funding organizations. Its home prices reflect that. With an average home price of almost $3.49 million, the enclave still attracts 1.16 inbound searches for every outbound move search.

Palo Alto isn’t alone in the Golden State. With 5 suburbs among the top ten most expensive, California suburbs come with notoriously high-priced real estate, with Palo Alto, Beverly Hills, Encinitas, and Camarillo all making an appearance before any other state’s suburbs appear on the list.

Palo Alto isn’t alone in the Golden State. With 5 suburbs among the top ten most expensive, California suburbs come with notoriously high-priced real estate, with Palo Alto, Beverly Hills, Encinitas, and Camarillo all making an appearance before any other state’s suburbs appear on the list.

But the priciest homes aren’t just found in coastal states. Right behind Camarillo comes an unlikely entrant: Franklin, TN. Though Tennessee itself is often thought to be an affordable option, this Nashville suburb is known for its historic downtown and small-town feel (along with ritzy estates), and it plays host to resident country music celebs like Keith Urban and Brad Paisley.

The most expensive destinations attract slightly more move interest than the most affordable ones (with an in-to-out ratio of 1.42 vs. 1.32), but both are lackluster compared to suburbs that balance costs with amenities.

The sweet spot seems to be moderately-high priced suburbs where housing averages $750K to 1.0M. 

And though the top ten suburbs for move interest have an average home price of about $509K, (nearly $150K above the national average), they are relatively “affordable” compared to the price of a home in the 10 most expensive ‘burbs (~$1.4 million).

Suburbs are the New Cities

Looking for distinct character in a suburb that feels like its own city?

The majority of 2025’s popular move-to suburbs fit the bill, from Wake Forest, NC, with its distinct downtown to Boerne, TX, with its Hill Country charm.

Suburban popularity doesn’t come from being a sleepy bedroom community with lightning-fast commute times. In fact, in 2025, it’s often a greater distance from the urban hub that makes a suburb appealing, with suburbs like Boerne and Wylie, TX, sitting more than 25 miles outside their metros.

Perhaps that’s because remote suburbs offer larger yards and quieter evenings.

Or perhaps it's the more affordable prices that attract newcomers to what were once “out of the way” communities.

Whatever the reason, in 2025, it’s the suburbs with their own personalities and amenities, often far outside mid-sized metros, that stand out. Take Summerville, SC, which often tops move ratio lists for its skyrocketing popularity. Summerville newcomers will not only find a historic district that anchors their new neighborhood, but also a sense of place that existed prior to the 1830s train line that connected historic Summerville to Charleston.

In the end, America’s most popular suburbs are proving that big moves don’t always mean big cities. Sometimes they mean big charm, with moderate prices, with some proximity to mid-sized metros. And if trends continue, the popularity of these spots — and their housing prices — will only continue to climb in 2026.

Methodology

To determine the top move-to suburbs in the nation’s largest metros for 2025, we looked at moveBuddha's most recent mover search data to compile a list of moves planned for anytime in 2025. 

The data used for this analysis includes searches made at any time between August 1, 2024, and September 11, 2025.

To find the top suburbs in each of the nation’s largest metro areas, we started with the 100 most populous metropolitan areas. For each metro, we selected the top move-to suburb with the highest inbound-to-outbound move ratio. 

What’s a “suburb”? In this case, we simply counted cities within a 50km (~31 mile) radius of the main metro area, for a total of 3,621 suburbs.

For reliability, we filtered the list of suburbs to include in our analysis only those where at least 20 inbound and outbound searches were recorded.

Finally, we used Zillow Home Value Index data retrieved on September 11, 2025, for July home averages and the most recent 2023 U.S. Census population estimates for metro and suburb population data.

Here’s the full list of the 81 most popular suburbs analyzed: