Move over vacation and business travel: Make room for relocation travel.
An analysis by Yardi Kube, a California-based company providing software solutions for the real estate industry, shows that Florida and Texas are the top travel destinations for remote workers looking to relocate. More millennials than other age groups travel to relocate, the analysis shows, and most leave California and New York for Florida and Texas.
Relocation travel is on the rise, as various states and regions try to attract talent by offering financial incentives to move. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, the George Kaiser Family Foundation is offering $10,000 grants to workers who relocate to the city. In Northwest Arkansas, remote workers relocating to Washington or Benton counties are offered $10,000 and $600 toward purchase of a bicycle.
The Northwest Arkansas Council, a conglomeration of local businesses, says its Life Works Here initiative “seeks to capture the attention and interest of talent from all over the country looking for a better quality of life.” The incentive program, launched in November 2020 with funds from the Walton Family Foundation, announced a year later that it received more than 26,000 applications from candidates in more than 115 countries and 50 states.
Of 740,000 people who moved to Florida in 2022, 107,000 were remote workers, Yardi Kube says. In Texas, about 660,000 people moved to the state, and about 95,000 were remote workers.
“Texas and Florida are the top relocation choices not only for remote workers but for people in general across the U.S.,” says Sanziana Bona, a Yardi Kube content marketing writer. “Some of the reasons people feel attracted to these states include the warm weather, a low cost of living, a diverse economy, tax advantages and a better quality of life.”
Millennials represented 51% of remote workers who moved out of state, according to Yardi Kube. Remote workers in the Gen X age group represented 21% of those who relocated to another state, and Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation were the least likely remote workers to move to another state.
“Millennials are most likely to relocate given the age and point in their lives most of them are at,” Bona says. “With the youngest relatively new in the job market and the oldest near the middle of their careers and probably having families, relocating comes easily during this dynamic time in their lives. They are open to new opportunities and can easily adapt to change and new places.”
