welcome to texas

Austin ranked among top 5 destinations for movers in 2023, per report

Austin is still reeling 'em in.

By at least one measure, Texas was the hottest destination in America for movers last year — and more of them steered toward Austin than any other city in the state.

U-Haul's new "Top Growth States Report" report, published January 2, ranks Texas the state with the most inbound moves via U-Haul trucks in 2023. It's the third year in the row that Texas has held that distinction.

U-Haul further drills down in its "Top U.S. Growth Cities" report to reveal Austin is the No. 5 U.S. destination for movers who used U-Hauls, overall, and the top-ranked locale in Texas. Austin did not appear in the company's 2022 report.

The statewide and city-specific studies calculated the growth rates based on each locale's net gain or net loss of one-way equipment from customer transactions throughout the entire calendar year. The report reminds readers that although U-Haul's numbers don't directly correlate to population or economic growth, it is an interesting look at the performance of the top American cities and states that are attracting newcomers.

The company says the number of do-it-yourself movers who arrived in the Lone Star State fell nearly 11 percent from the previous year, but those same movers still made up 50.4 percent of all one-way U-Haul traffic in and out of Texas in 2023.

Cory Hall, the U-Haul Area District Vice President for Southern Texas, says in a press release that major tech companies like Oracle, Tesla, Google, and Apple are drawing tens of thousands of employees to Texas from other states like California and New York.

"Texas is growing at a massive rate right now, which doesn’t really seem to surprise anybody based on the companies that are investing here," Hall says. “The lower cost of living and taxes for those companies … it’s a huge investment for them."

Hall also notes that the employees who do pack up and move to Texas experience a "substantial pay increase" due to the lack of income tax, and lower property taxes in comparison to bigger cities like San Francisco. (This is, of course, a complicated comparison since the median household income in San Francisco was $136,689 in 2022, compared to Austin's $86,556.)

Right behind Austin as the No. 6 top U.S. destination for newcomers is College Station-Bryan (No. 6), a popular choice thanks to Texas A&M University. Dallas also earned a spot in the top 10, ranking No. 9. Conroe, a city outside Houston, ranked outside the top 10 in No. 16, after previously ranking No. 19 in 2022.

U-Haul's top 10 growth cities in 2023 are:

No. 1 – Palm Bay-Melbourne, Florida
No. 2 – Ocala, Florida
No. 3 – Charleston-North Charleston, South Carolina
No. 4 – Sarasota-Bradenton, Florida
No. 5 – Austin, Texas
No. 6 – College Station-Bryan, Texas
No. 7 – Charlotte, North Carolina
No. 8 – Huntsville, Alabama
No. 9 – Dallas, Texas
No. 10 – Myrtle Beach-North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Both reports can be found on uhaul.com.

austin reports u-haul moving

better luck next year

Austin drops out of top 50 'World's Best Cities' list for 2025

Photo by Tracy Vu on Unsplash

Austin needs to put in some major work to improve its ranking for the 2026 report.

In a surprising turn for the city, Austin is no longer considered one the top 50 best cities in the world, according to a prestigious new report by Resonance Consultancy.

The Canada-based real estate and tourism marketing advisors ranked Austin the 53rd best city worldwide for 2025 in its annual "World's Best Cities" list.

The report quantifies the relative qualities of livability, "lovability," and prosperity for the world's top 100 cities with metropolitan populations of 1 million or more. New to the 10th anniversary edition, Resonance partnered with global market researchers Ipsos to include perception-based data into the rankings, surveying over 22,000 people in 30 countries worldwide to determine "the most desirable places to visit, live or work."

Austin took a 10-place tumble after previously ranking as No. 43 for two consecutive years, starting in 2022.

Resonance refers to its previous "World's Best Cities" reports and its 2024 "America's Best Cities" list – which ranked Austin in the top 15 – when explaining the Texas Capital's successes. The report praised Austin's "progressive spirit," economic prosperity, and the award-winning University of Texas at Austin.

"Austin continues to position itself as a hub of innovation and talent," the report's author wrote. "Over the past decade, the Austin area has become a magnet for major corporations, with Tesla recently establishing headquarters here to join long-standing players like Whole Foods and Dell."

However, Resonance attribute's Austin's dip in the rankings due to rising office vacancy rates and high housing prices.

"The office vacancy rate is climbing as remote work continues to impact the demand for commercial spaces," the report said. "Moreover, housing remains among the least affordable in the U.S., despite home prices having dropped 18 percent from the pandemic highs seen in mid-2022, the most among the 50 largest U.S. metro areas according to Redfin."

Elsewhere in Texas, both Houston and Dallas made major rebounds on the World's Best Cities list for 2025 from the previous year's rankings. Houston had plummeted into No. 66 in 2023, but has now skyrocketed back into the top 50 to claim the No. 40 spot. Meanwhile, Dallas moved up from No. 73 in last year's report to its current rank as No. 55.

London held onto its crown as the No. 1 best city in the world for 2025, followed by New York (No. 2), Paris (No. 3), Tokyo (No. 4), and Singapore (No. 5).

austin reports city life