Lovin’ the Lone Star State
Texans really don’t want to leave the Lone Star State, this study says
As we all know, Texans take pride in Texas. Bumper stickers, T-shirts, and TV commercials make that abundantly clear.
So it should come as no surprise at all that Texans love, love, love to live in Texas — and most don’t want to move to Oklahoma (ugh!) or any other less-worthy state.
A study by LendingTree, an online marketplace for borrowers, shows that among all 50 states, Texas had the highest percentage of residents wanting to move within the state rather than to another state.
Nearly 93 percent of LendingTree requests from Texans seeking a home-purchase mortgage were considering properties within our borders, the study says. Viewed another way, only about 7 percent of Texas residents were hoping to put the Lone Star State in the rearview mirror.
For this study, LendingTree reviewed mortgage inquiries for October 2016 to October 2017 from residents across the country. The results revealed the most popular new destination for residents of each state along with the percentage of mortgage requests from out-of-staters.
Of the slim number of homebuyers hoping to leave Texas, Florida was the leading destination, according to the study. Nearly 10.5 percent of Texas’ out-of-state movers were heading to the Sunshine State. Texas was among 18 states where Florida was the No. 1 relocation spot.
Texas was the top out-of-state relocation target for residents of five nearby states: Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. Of those five states, only Colorado does not border Texas.
“If individuals are looking to move outside of state, most don’t want to go far. More than half of the most popular new destination states border the current state,” LendingTree says.
Overall, Texas was the second most popular out-of-state destination, just behind Florida and ahead of California, Washington, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and North Carolina.
