Summer 2025’s Surprising New Cities Everyone’s Thinking of Moving To (In Every State)

When work from home sputters, wildfires sweep through residential neighborhoods, and hurricanes upend roofs, Americans’ sense of “home” also changes.

After all, nearly 58% of American moves are related to housing and jobs. When those change, the fortunes of American cities change with them. 

They changed dramatically in 2024 and early 2025. 

First of all, return-to-office mandates have spread among companies like Google and Dell, prompting office workers to relocate and remote workers to put off home buying. Further, 27 billion-dollar weather events slammed the U.S. by mid-September, helping skyrocket home insurance premiums at twice the rate of inflation.

But have these changes prompted Americans to return to large cities for the commuter lifestyle? Or move inland to avoid storms?

We wanted to know which cities are most popular with movers in today’s climate, and we felt that the changes we’re seeing within moveBuddha’s cost calculator were significant enough to warrant visiting the upcoming summer moving season with fresh eyes — and rapidly changing data, even though we updated the top cities everyone’s moving to (in every state) just a couple of months ago.

So, we analyzed data from moveBuddha’s moving cost calculator to find the places where significantly more people are looking to move into than out right now. 

Because the summer of 2025 is shaping up to shift many of the trends we’ve been seeing up until recently.

What did we find?

Once popular cities are falling out of favor. Instead, summer 2025 is all about moves to outlying areas near developed job markets and to more affordable locations.

Key Takeaways

• • Small towns are big news. 7 of the 10 most popular destinations have populations <100K residents. #1 Conway, SC, sees more than 4X the number of in-moves compared to exits. Its total population? Just under 30K residents.
  • Interest is cooling in isolated towns. Proximity to military bases, retirement communities, or recreational amenities keep some small towns like Lawton, OK, Green Valley, AZ, and Bend, OR, atop their states’ popularity lists.
  • 72% of top performers are changed from 2024, as move patterns shift from historic, charming towns in nature’s path, to small commuter belt and suburban enclaves like Caldwell, ID, or Wake Forest, NC.
  • To live large without draining your savings, consider Shreveport, LA, one of the most affordable cities among the most popular.
  • Blow your budget in Beverly Hills, CA, the most expensive popular city in the country this year.

Cities that Rose to the Top in 2025 — And Who They Dethroned

Compared to a year ago, this summer’s most popular destinations are more likely to be smaller (<100K people), cheaper (with a median home value <$400K in most cases), and still growing fast (with high in-to-out ratios, even if raw numbers are tiny).

2025 Movers are Keeping it Small

The 2024 to 20235 migration shift reveals a “smallness premium” where a human-scale population and strategic proximity to metro economies now define the new migration winners. But these aren’t isolated little towns. This year’s top cities often sit just outside major metros, blending calm with a new on-the-grid mindset.

Suburban sweet spots like Wake Forest, NC, New Braunfels, TX, and Caldwell, ID, gained ground by offering access to urban job markets without urban congestion.

• Wake Forest, a Raleigh suburb, benefits from tech spillover (Apple, Google) and replaced last year’s rural pick, Hickory, NC, which is more than an hour from Charlotte.
• New Braunfels, TX, took the top spot in Texas from McAllen, bringing new residents closer to San Antonio and Austin.
• Caldwell, within commuting range of Boise, offers better access than 2024’s Coeur d’Alene, which sits farther from the major employers of northern Idaho.

These cities represent an increasing desire for a small-town address, but with the advantage of a big-city paycheck. 

Cheaper? Only When the Job Market Permits

While small size helps, affordability is no longer enough on its own. This year’s top cities demonstrate that price only wins when it’s paired with job opportunities or lifestyle perks.

Take the isolated small towns that stand out among this year’s top cities. They’re largely attracting new movers with specific appeal and a significant discount.

• Lawton, OK, home to Fort Sill, offers average home prices of just $134K, attracting military families.
• Green Valley appeals to retirees with its laid-back desert lifestyle.
• Conway, near Myrtle Beach, which displaced larger Summerville, SC, comes with ocean access without the costs (home prices are $90K less). Conway is also out of the state’s hurricane evacuation and storm surge risk zones.

But job access still matters.

In Idaho, Caldwell beat out scenic Coeur d’Alene. The city benefits from a $ 150,000 lower average home price — but it’s also connected to Boise’s job market.

In Georgia, Fayetteville replaced Duluth, offering more space, lower density, and a similar commute to Atlanta.

This trend suggests there’s a tipping point: when prices rise in one hotspot, movers don’t flee the region, they just look to its fringe. It’s possible that’s why Wake Forest, NC, (pricier than Hickory) still rose — its proximity to booming Raleigh offset its higher cost.

The bottom line: movers are hyper-localizing in 2025. The new winners are tiny, inexpensive, or located close enough to cities, while 2024’s stand-alone hubs, such as McAllen and Hickory, lost ground.

Move Interest is Both Changing & Growing

A whopping 72% of states saw a new top city compared to last year, showing that movers are changing their preferences. There’s also a stronger magnetism to top cities: the average in-to-out ratio in 2025 rose to 2.50, up from 2.18 in 2024. 

Together, these shifts show that Americans are recalibrating where they want to go and converging more strongly around a new set of emerging cities. The trend toward more diversified choices is reversing.

The shift in preference plays out in the rise of new frontrunners across the map:

• Hilliard, OH, replaced Youngstown as Ohio’s top destination, with a move ratio rising to 2.5. While Youngstown faces ongoing industrial decline, Hilliard offers leafy suburbs. It’s more expensive, but the tradeoff has become worthwhile for many movers.
• Camas, WA, beat Olympia, rising to a ratio of 2.7. With scenic views and proximity to Portland, Camas might be a more dynamic choice that offers space to stretch out without sacrificing nights out in the city.
• Broomfield, CO, now tops Boulder, CO, despite their proximity. Its rise may reflect movers seeking more breathing room and slightly more affordable real estate, rather than giving up on the Denver area.
• Holland, MI, took the lead from Lansing, showing that some lifestyle-oriented arts and lakeside towns are beating out more economically-minded state capitals, but only when they bring lifestyle perks to the table.

If 2025 has a signature, it’s churn. However, on the whole, people are reshuffling to places that are both more affordable and closer to commuter belts, perhaps holding on to the remote-work dream of bigger spaces for less dough.

The Top Ten Cities with the Lowest Home Prices

1. Shreveport, LA
2. Lawton, OK
3. Hutchinson, KS
4. Belleville, IL
5. Charleston, WV
6. Binghampton, NY
7. Fort Smith, AR
8. Gulfport, MS
9. Alamagordo, NM
10. Dubuque, IA

With a move ratio of 2.48, you’re in good company heading to Shreveport, LA, for the lowest average home prices among popular cities. You can buy an average home in “The Port” for just $134,387 — that’s ~63% lower than the national average.

Outliers Lawton, OK, and Fort Smith, AR, both have in-migration ratios over 3.0 despite long-term population stagnation. Moving interest here may indicate a recent, temporary shift in military operations, or simply reflect that high in-migration fails to compensate for these cities’ low birth rates and broader demographic decline. 

Overall, the most affordable state winners are a mix of regionally significant hubs and small, isolated ecosystems with niche economies. They’re rarely seen as boomtowns, but with the right military or regional college job offer, they offer a deal for workers looking for a slower pace, more space, and a fatter wallet.

Top Cities with the Highest Home Prices

1. Beverly Hills, CA
2. Brookline, MA
3. Morristown, NJ
4. Camas, WA
5. Bend, OR
6. Broomfield, CO
7. Portland, ME
8. Kalispell, MT
9. Wake Forest, NC
10. St. George, UT

Those loading up their truck and moving to Beverly Hills can expect to spend 863% more than the national average on a home in the exclusive enclave. But prices (and regional fires) haven’t stopped the Los Angeles neighborhood from attracting 2.70 newcomers for every resident looking to call it quits.

Among the most expensive cities, proximity to major metros is much more common than among low-cost winners. Brookline residents are within striking distance of Boston, while Morristown lies within commuting range of New York City, Wake Forest is close to Raleigh, and Broomfield lies between Boulder and Denver. 

In more isolated cities, there’s strong lifestyle appeal to keep in-move interest high: Bend offers miles of single-track trails, a local ski community, and a charming downtown that woos its rain-logged Western neighbors over on weekends to bask in the winter sun. 

Kalispell, Camas, and St. George are also known for livability. None of these outdoor gems wins affordability awards, but they’re often perceived as worth the price of admission. The problem isn’t getting any better. As many of these cities experience tight housing markets, tourism spillover, and strict zoning regulations amidst their newfound popularity, their price tags are likely to continue rising.

Heading Back to the Office, But Keeping it Small

This year’s movers are choosing less diverse locations than in recent years, when remote workers had the option of spreading out across the country. Today, top cities are winning a more concentrated share of relocation popularity, but they’re also more likely to be small(ish) towns outside major economic hubs.

For those continuing to work remotely or retiring, movers are happy to ditch the city. But many others are returning to the commuting life, focusing on cities that combine low costs with city access.

So, look for many states’ top destinations in 2025 to be spots with outdoor appeal or high affordability. But as interest concentrates in these cities, they won’t be a bargain for long.

Whatever your preference (and budget), urban centers are out, and larger spaces are in, regardless of what return-to-office mandates have to say.

Methodology

We analyzed moveBuddha’s moving cost calculator from October 2024 to May 2025 for all moves being planned in 2025, across 1336 American cities with at least 25 planned in and out moves.

While not every prospective mover will complete the journey, planning moves is likely proportional to moves that will be completed across U.S. cities, offering an accurate picture of which cities are most popular for moves inbound and outbound, and are most likely to lead to high residential influx in 2025. 

The approach offers a real-time snapshot into movers’ mindsets, whereas U.S. Census’ annual Community Survey data, can’t yet confirm where movers went — this data is released late in the year, nearly a full year after the reference period (i.e. data for the entirety of 2025 won’t be released until late in 2026). 

We omitted Hawaii for lack of data, and two states in the analysis had zero cities with more inbound than outbound move interest (Vermont and North Dakota). 

Move ratios were calculated for all cities with more than 25 searches in and outbound, so ratios >1.0 indicate more move-in interest, whereas ratios <1.0 suggest more people are interested in exiting a location than moving in. Because move ratios measure moves inbound compared to outbound, they naturally calculate popularity in per capita terms, so smaller gems with high move interest come to the surface.