Who Moves More Often: Owners or Renters?

While this seems like a question with a rather obvious answer, you still might be thinking about why exactly is that the case. After all, about 27,059,000 Americans have moved during the year 2021. Why would someone decide to move across the country with the help of best cross-country movers? Or inside the borders of the United States. Well, that’s why we’re here to help you. This text will dive into some statistics, and thoughts, and answer most of your questions. There might be more to it than you think there is. Without further ado if we’ve sparked your interest, let’s talk about who moves more often and why.

Why move in the first place?

We can’t really go on before talking about why someone would even decide to move. Is it a new job opportunity? Family? A partner? University? According to CPS Census data, turns out that most people move because of housing prices. More precisely, 46% of people moved within the United States because of housing prices. This information is from the year 2021. I can’t help but ask, how many times does the average family move? Well, “Family-related” takes second place in these statistics, with 21% of people deciding to move because of family matters, so not too often. 16% of people moved because of employment, and 14% choose the option “Other”.

These results practically peek into the answer of who moves more frequently. If you give some thought to it, people moving because of housing prices makes a lot of sense. Housing prices have increased this year, and they seem to keep racing forward. On top of that, everyone is continually trying to find a better deal. It’s quite a surprise that such a small amount of people move because of work though. It seems like many get job opportunities outside of their hometown. You learn something new every day.

Where do people move to

Good question. So besides who relocates more often, where exactly are they going? According to the same statistics, 24,2% have moved inside the borders of the state. That’s where everybody goes? Nope, a whopping 58,4% have moved within their County. Seems like staying rather close is the go-to method of moving. The fact that just 2% of people moved abroad strengthens that fact. So it seems like being close to your family is always a good idea. After all, they’re the ones you can always count on.

To be more precise, the South region has gained about 253,000 people from migrations. Going even more into detail, when we talk about which state people go to, we are talking about Florida. Florida has seen 220,089 more people moving in, rather than moving out. If you too are interested in moving to Florida, be sure to write down all the Florida stats you should know before moving out.

Following up to Florida, Texas comes quite close with a number of 170,307 of net migration gain. If you want to move out with your family, word is that Houston is one of the top locations for families in Texas. But from which state do people not move out of more often? Turns out California has lost 367,299 people to migrations, with New York following up with 352,185 losses in migrations. That’s how you get a bit more into detail about who moves more often.

Who moves more often, is it the owners or the renters?

Now let’s dive into the main theme of the article, which begs the question, who exactly relocates more often: owners or renters? As you’ve probably guessed by now, renters are the ones that move more often. They are more flexible, usually don’t invest in their housing too much, and are not attached to their place since they are renting it. What we’re trying to say here is, if you are renting a place, you don’t tend to put a lot of money into it (except for the rent of course).

If you are asking why, it’s because you know there is a possibility of you moving on to some other part of the country. That doesn’t always need to be true but, most likely it is. Let’s say you are planning on moving to West Virginia, you look up some West Virginia cross-country movers and you go off. It’s that easy. But when you own a home and you want to move somewhere else, it will prove to be a much more difficult task. Many students tend to rent a place until they finish college, which just proves our point.

In actuality, 34% of the US is comprised of renters. That’s a big bite out of the country’s population. If you look into the market and consumer database, Statista, you’ll find out that the usual renter is almost 40 years old and has never been married. About 40% of renters live alone. This might prove to be crucial information for answering: “Who repeatedly moves?”. On the other hand, the typical owner is 55-64 years old. About 60% of them are married couples. Also, looking into some interesting statistics, the more you earn, the higher the chance that you own a home of your own. People with lower salaries tend to rent apartments, while those that have higher salaries own their own places.

Why would someone rent a place when they know who moves more often?

You just read about the fact that renters are exactly the people that tend to move more often. Now, you can’t help but wonder why someone would decide to do such a thing. Let’s ask ourselves that exact question:

• Upfront costs are incomparable – The costs of renting a place cost you much less than investing in your own place. It’s not even just the price you pay when you buy it, you will definitely need to modify it to your own liking. So you better know what’s the difference between renting and owning a house.
• Less to think about – You can always call up the owner and they’ll most likely help out with any kind of problem you have. This lures us to conclude who moves a lot. Not just that, but it also isn’t your place, so you don’t need to worry about the long-term problems it may bring.
• Brings flexibility – It’s much easier to move out of a place you’ve been renting for a while, than a home you’ve invested so much time and energy into making your own.
• Family Growth – If you are concerned about forming a family after buying a small apartment for yourself, chances are you will just rent it. That way you will invest in your own place when the time comes. Is family growth the reason why the answer to “Who moves more often?” is renters? Not quite, but it’s not far from that either.
• Relocating plans – If you already know you are just staying in your new city for a few years, why bother buying an apartment or house? The best option is quite obviously just to rent a place to spend your time in that new city. After that, if you want to move to let’s say Michigan, you sit down and get some help from good Michigan cross-country movers and you are on your merry way. In fact, two-thirds of current renters believe they will migrate elsewhere within the next few years.

Why renters tend to move out

Knowing who repositions more often, let’s see why is that the case. Moving from one place to another isn’t an easy task. Doing so often is even further from a simple thing to do. Packing all of your stuff up, getting informed about the new place, main expenses of relocation, etc. That’s a long list of chores and just one move. Why don’t all those renters just keep renting the same place?  We’re guessing a load of reasons pop out in your head, let’s check if you are right.

The rent is too much to handle

We’ve talked about rent prices going up, and up, and up. US monthly rent was an average of $2,000 in August, which is 12,3% more than last year at that time. While the renter might have a problem with their job, the rent price won’t stop rising for sure. If you are one of these renters, start wondering about whether you are in one of the best cities for renters or not. Just seeing a new opportunity with cheaper rent might spark their interest. Hopefully, the owners of that housing are taking good care of both the place and the renter. One might argue there are always options. Who moves more often? It will definitely be your tenant if you are raising those prices to an abnormal amount.

Job opportunities get you to the answer to “who moves more often?”

We’ve mentioned this one before, but its action is truly high in the scope of the theme of who moves more frequently. If the current city the renter is living in isn’t exactly one of the best US cities for job seekers, and they got a new deal, chances are they’ll take it. Who wouldn’t take that deal? Especially considering most renters live alone, they don’t really have someone else to drag with them so they will take the offer. The owner of the housing would be lucky if the tenant just got a better job opportunity in a city where they could still offer them good renting material.

Need of a bigger/smaller place

If they are living alone, which they most likely are, they won’t like dealing with the problems of a big home. Cleaning everything up is just enough of a job. Takes a lot of time to tidy up every corner when you don’t have anyone to help you out. They might also be just paying more for heating up the whole place during winter, and cooling it down during the summer. Might be why renters are the answer to who often moves. Hopefully, they didn’t just leave through a divorce or any kind of separation. Maybe we are overanalyzing this and they just feel more comfortable in a smaller place where they could just walk two steps and get to the kitchen. Sure, they might have to think about how to adjust when moving into a smaller home, but it will be well worth the effort in the end.

On the other hand, chances are they have finally found the partner of their lives. That right there is a sign of moving out and starting a family. What if they already have a few kids? The bigger the family, the more space they’ll need. Maybe they’ll look into popular cities for families in Georgia? Or maybe in California? That’s who moves more often. Sure, it is easier to watch the kid in a small apartment where the only place he can play is in front of the parent. But as the kid grows up, the parents will see how much more personal space it needs. Therefore, they will look for a bigger place to spend their lives in. Hell, maybe they’ll even buy a house.

Annoying neighbors

Well, most of us have been there. Your neighbor keeps drilling new holes in his apartment every other day for some reason. Is he building a gallery or something up there? The kids upstairs keep jumping during the late hours and you can’t get enough sleep. A loud teenager keeps listening to loud music or playing the drums. You can hear arguing every day and you know every relationship problem the couple next door has. We’re guessing the renter might just have some of these problems, and they’ll never get used to them. Who could get used to such unpredictable and annoying events? Either the tenant will try and solve the problems with their neighbors or they’ll just answer our question of who migrates more often and why.

Unbearable maintenance

Remember when we mentioned the renter has less to worry about? That can very well be true, but there’s a risk of the building having severe problems with maintenance. Those puzzles might not be so easily solvable. The drain gets clogged often, the heaters aren’t working properly, and bugs keep coming in. We could probably keep on naming the things that can go wrong. What’s funny is that even the landlord might not be able to help with these errors.

Final Conclusion

Hopefully, this article has answered your question about who moves more often. Maybe you’ve gotten to the answer yourself rather quickly, but you’ve surely learned plenty by sticking to the end. Maybe we should also be asking ourselves: “Why are the renters moving out regularly?”. Shifting our attention to solving those problems rather than keeping those renters moving from one place to another. Landlords, I’m looking at you. On the other hand, nothing more to it than to be happy for every owner that tends to stick to their home.