South Carolina, Texas, North Carolina, Florida, and Tennessee round out the top five in “Uhaul’s Growth States of 2024.” Your Survival Guy has spent time in or visited all of them. If you’re a golfer and like boating, South Carolina is hard to beat. Having spent many years golfing in Myrtle Beach with my dad, I can’t believe we haven’t been back since high school.
When I was twleve years old, we traveled across the country in a Winnebago Brave (yes, we were). I remember how long it took to get through Texas. I love what I know about Texas. I have friends who call it home and know Will from “Fox Weekends” is from there. But for me, Florida checks a lot of the boxes that Texas checks. It’s sort of like how Californians vacation in Hawaii. New Englanders go to Florida.
I could live in the Carolinas. I remember that during one of our Myrtle Beach college search/golf trips, we looked at Furman University in South Carolina. Beautiful. When we got home, my mom said, “Why don’t you look at Babson College in Wellesley, MA?” The rest is history.
Your Survival Guy spends a lot of time in Bartlett, New Hampshire located in the White Mountains; Newport, Rhode Island, the sailing capital of the world; Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, a gem of a town on Buzzards Bay, where I grew up; Key West, Florida, where my in-laws live, and Paris, France, (you can read about here). I recommend all of them to you for different reasons.
I would like to spend some time in the outskirts of Nashville, Tennessee, and in Park City, Utah, when the ski patrol isn’t on strike. Tennessee is appealing for obvious financial reasons. Park City is for skiers looking to be close to top-notch medical facilities and tech work.
Action Line: If you’re planning on moving for retirement, before you buy, spend a season or two getting to know the lay of the land to be an informed buyer. If you want to talk about my neck of the woods, let’s talk. But only if you’re serious. You can reach me directly at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com.
P.S. Here’s what U-Haul had to say in their report on 2024:
The trend of southern states netting larger numbers of one-way U-Haul® customers continued during 2024, with South Carolina topping the U-Haul Growth Index for the first time.
Texas, North Carolina, Florida and Tennessee round out the five leading growth states.
California experienced the greatest net loss of do-it-yourself movers in U-Haul equipment and ranks 50th for the fifth consecutive year.
Growth rankings are configured by each state’s net gain (or loss) of customers utilizing one-way U-Haul equipment in a calendar year. The U-Haul Growth Index is compiled from well over 2.5 million one-way U-Haul truck, trailer and U-Box® moving container transactions that occur annually.
The 2024 U-Haul Growth Index rankings were (Previous year’s rank in parenthesis):
- SOUTH CAROLINA (4)
- TEXAS (1)
- NORTH CAROLINA (3)
- FLORIDA (2)
- TENNESSEE (5)
- ARIZONA (8)
- WASHINGTON (7)
- INDIANA (27)
- UTAH (13)
- IDAHO (6)
- OKLAHOMA (41)
- ARKANSAS (17)
- MAINE (31)
- OHIO (23)
- GEORGIA (18)
- ALABAMA (22)
- VIRGINIA (10)
- MINNESOTA (20)
- SOUTH DAKOTA (19)
- VERMONT (12)
- DELAWARE (15)
- WISCONSIN (26)
- IOWA (24)
- MONTANA (21)
- KENTUCKY (29)
- HAWAII (25)
- ALASKA (34)
- MISSOURI (28)
- NEBRASKA (35)
- WEST VIRGINIA (30)
- NORTH DAKOTA (32)
- KANSAS (33)
- NEW HAMPSHIRE (40)
- OREGON (37)
- NEVADA (11)
- WYOMING (14)
- NEW MEXICO (16)
- RHODE ISLAND (36)
- MISSISSIPPI (39)
- COLORADO (9)
- CONNECTICUT (42)
- MARYLAND (44)
- MICHIGAN (46)
- LOUISIANA (45)
- ILLINOIS (48)
- PENNSYLVANIA (38)
- NEW YORK (43)
- NEW JERSEY (47)
- MASSACHUSETTS (49)
- CALIFORNIA (50)
Originally posted on Your Survival Guy.
