Report: Californians moving less, follows national trend

Throughout the last 50 years, American mobility started losing momentum, according to the latest U.S. Census residential mobility data analyzed by Point2Homes.

Today, Americans move far less than they once did: 11% of people (or 37,045,761 residents) changed their address in the past year. That’s a dip from 14.3% ten years prior and a big slip from the 20% who were changing residences each year in the 1960s.

California is seeing the same trend. Nearly 4 million people in California changed their addresses in 2024, but only 10.9% came from out of state, according to the report. Among large cities, however, last year San Francisco had 18,836 come from out of state, putting it at #23 for arrivals. San Jose had 10,045, putting it at #34. Las Vegas was #1 in new residents.

American mobility rates have declined to historic lows due to a combination of factors, including economic and job-related uncertainty; rising housing costs; and the increase in remote work flexibility, which reduced job-related relocations. To that end, the national mobility rate dropped to 11% in 2024, the lowest level recorded since the Census Bureau began tracking this data in 1948.

Compared to the beginning of the 20th century, when homeownership rates hovered around 45%, a majority of Americans are now owners: After the fluctuations caused by the housing market collapse and resulting foreclosures from 2008, the national homeownership rate stabilized at around 65%. And, because homeownership is a more stable and permanent housing option, increasingly more Americans becoming homeowners, which affects mobility rates.

Key points in the report:

• Mobility is steadily falling: In the 1900s, nearly one in three Americans moved each year. Then, by the 1960s, it was one in five. In 2024, only about one in nine people changed residences.
• A historic low: Last year, only 11% of the entire population relocated nationwide as Americans move less and less.
• Few make big moves: Of those who did move, only 19.3% changed states in 2024, compared to 20.1% the year before.

The full report can be found here: https://www.point2homes.com/news/research/us-mobility-rates-reach-historical-low.html.