A three-bedroom move and a studio move are not the same expense scaled down — they are different products entirely. According to a 2025 survey of 1,000 recent movers by This Old House, the average local move of a one-bedroom home costs $1,492, while a four-bedroom local move averages $2,799 — and the gap widens dramatically once distance enters the equation. This report breaks down the real cost of moving by home size, studio through four-bedroom-plus, using current data from three independent sources, so you know what a fair quote looks like before a mover ever walks through your door.
Quick answer: A studio or one-bedroom local move typically runs $1,200–$1,500, a two-bedroom local move averages roughly $1,200–$2,200, a three-bedroom local move averages $1,350–$3,300, and a four-bedroom-plus local move averages $2,800–$5,500. Long-distance moves (1,000+ miles) roughly double to quadruple those figures depending on home size, per data from This Old House and moveBuddha.
Why Home Size Is the Single Biggest Cost Driver
Movers price a job primarily on two variables: the weight or cubic footage of the shipment, and the labor-hours required to load and unload it. Home size is a reasonable proxy for both, which is why every serious moving-cost dataset segments by bedroom count rather than by city or season alone. A studio apartment might weigh 2,000–2,500 pounds fully packed; a four-bedroom house routinely tops 10,000 pounds. That weight difference is the primary reason a four-bedroom long-distance move can cost more than three times what a one-bedroom move costs on the identical route.
Distance compounds the effect. moveBuddha’s three-bedroom cost analysis, built from a dataset of over 400,000 customer moves, shows a three-bedroom move climbing from $2,212–$5,300 at 250 miles to $5,997–$14,191 at roughly 2,500 miles. The home-size multiplier and the distance multiplier stack, which is exactly why “average cost of moving” as a single number is close to meaningless without a home-size breakdown.
Studio and One-Bedroom Moves: The Real Numbers
Studios and one-bedrooms are the cheapest category by a wide margin, but they are far from free. This Old House’s 2025 survey puts the average local one-bedroom move (under 50 miles) at $1,492, and the average long-distance one-bedroom move (1,701+ miles) at $2,916. moveBuddha’s city-level calculators back this up at the low end: studio moves in dense metros like New York and Los Angeles start around $347–$398 for a minimally furnished, no-packing local job, climbing quickly once furniture and packing services are added.
For long-distance one-bedroom moves specifically, HireAHelper’s 2024–2025 Migration Report, drawn from an analysis of over 114,000 booked moves, found that customers moving a one-bedroom apartment long-distance most commonly paid between $2,500 and $5,000 — a range that aligns closely with the This Old House figure once you account for how “long-distance” is defined (HireAHelper’s dataset skews toward 500–1,500-mile moves rather than coast-to-coast).
Quick win: If you’re moving a studio or one-bedroom, ask for an hourly labor-only quote rather than a flat full-service quote first. For a shipment this small, the labor-only or hybrid model (you drive the truck, movers load/unload) is almost always cheaper than full-service, often by 30% or more.
Two-Bedroom Moves: The Middle of the Curve
Two-bedroom homes sit at an inflection point in the data. This Old House’s survey recorded an average local two-bedroom move at $1,202 and a long-distance two-bedroom move at $3,351 — notably, the local average for two-bedrooms came in slightly below the one-bedroom average in that particular survey wave, a reminder that these are averages across a wide range of quote types, apartment layouts, and regions, not a strict linear curve.
Real customer data tells a similar story from the other direction: moveBuddha’s review data on Mayflower Transit, one of the largest national van lines, showed an actual customer paying $5,286 for a roughly 2,000-mile, two-bedroom move from California to Illinois — well above the national long-distance average, illustrating how much a specific carrier, route, and season can move the number even within the same home-size category (see moveBuddha’s Mayflower cost review).
Three-Bedroom Moves: The Most Common (and Most Studied) Category
Three-bedroom homes are the workhorse of the moving industry — and the best-documented. This Old House found that 36.4% of all respondents in its 2025 survey were moving a three-bedroom home, more than any other size, with a local average of $1,479 and a long-distance average of $5,064.
moveBuddha’s dedicated three-bedroom cost breakdown, sourced from its own 400,000-move dataset, gives a wider and more granular range: local full-service moves (under 50 miles) between $1,350 and $3,300, hourly labor rates of $65–$250 per hour depending on crew size and region, and long-distance moves ranging from $1,000 on the low end (partial DIY/hybrid) up to $14,000 for a full-service, cross-country, fully-packed move. The baseline full-service average before add-ons like packing and specialty-item handling sits at $2,500–$4,700, per the same analysis. A real Mayflower customer move in moveBuddha’s data — roughly 500 miles, Wisconsin to Kansas — came in at $8,322, showing how quickly add-ons and full-value protection push a three-bedroom quote toward the top of the range.
Four-Bedroom-Plus Moves: Where the Curve Gets Steep
Four-bedroom-plus homes show the sharpest cost jump in the entire dataset. This Old House’s 2025 survey recorded a local four-bedroom average of $2,799 — nearly double the three-bedroom local figure — and a long-distance four-bedroom average of $9,228, more than four times the one-bedroom long-distance average on the same distance tier. moveBuddha’s city-level data shows the same pattern at the extreme end: a five-bedroom-plus local move in New York City averages $3,760, and $3,399 in Los Angeles, both roughly ten times the studio rate in the same market.
The reason isn’t just weight. Four-bedroom-plus homes are statistically more likely to include garages, basements, and multiple storage rooms full of items that were never inventoried in a walkthrough, which is the single most common source of “surprise” charges on move day. Crews for this size also typically require 3–4 movers minimum instead of 2, directly increasing the hourly labor rate on top of the added weight.
Home-Size Cost Comparison Table
| Home Size | Local Move (under 50 mi) | Long-Distance Move (1,000+ mi) |
| Studio / 1-Bedroom | $1,200 – $1,500 | $2,500 – $3,500 |
| 2-Bedroom | $1,200 – $2,200 | $3,000 – $5,500 |
| 3-Bedroom | $1,350 – $3,300 | $4,200 – $8,300 |
| 4-Bedroom+ | $2,800 – $5,500 | $7,000 – $14,000+ |
Ranges compiled from This Old House’s 2025 mover survey, moveBuddha’s 400,000-move dataset, and HireAHelper’s 2024–2025 Migration Report. Actual quotes vary by carrier, season, and access conditions (stairs, elevators, parking distance).
What Actually Moves the Price Within Each Size Category
Home size sets the baseline, but four other factors routinely swing a quote 20–40% in either direction within the same bedroom count:
- Packing services. Full-service packing typically adds $300–$800 for a one-bedroom and $1,000–$2,500+ for a four-bedroom, according to moveBuddha’s service-tier breakdowns.
- Season and timing. Summer moves (May–September) and end-of-month moves both carry premium pricing across every home-size tier because demand is highest then.
- Access conditions. Third-floor walk-ups, long carry distances from the truck to the door, and lack of elevator access all add labor-hour surcharges regardless of home size.
- Specialty items. Pianos, safes, pool tables, and oversized furniture carry flat surcharges of $100–$500 per item on top of the base home-size rate.
DIY, Hybrid, or Full-Service: How the Choice Changes the Numbers by Home Size
Every figure above assumes a mix of service levels, because that’s how the underlying datasets were built. But the service model you choose shifts the effective cost per home size more than almost any other single decision. A pure DIY move — renting a truck and doing all labor yourself — strips out the labor line entirely and leaves you paying only for the vehicle, fuel, and any equipment rental. For a studio or one-bedroom, that can cut the total to a few hundred dollars for a local move. For a four-bedroom, DIY still requires renting a truck large enough for the shipment (often a 26-foot box truck) and typically 2–3 extra people to help load, which narrows the DIY savings considerably compared to a studio.
Hybrid moves — where you rent the truck or container and hire labor only to load and unload — sit in between, and are where moveBuddha’s data shows the widest home-size spread in dollar savings. A hybrid one-bedroom move might save $300–$600 versus full-service; a hybrid four-bedroom move can save $1,500 or more, because the labor-hours saved scale directly with the extra crew size a four-bedroom home requires.
Regional Cost Variation Layered on Top of Home Size
Home size sets the baseline, but where you live shifts it substantially in either direction. moveBuddha’s city-level moving cost calculators show studio and one-bedroom local moves starting near $347 in Los Angeles and $398 in New York City — both high cost-of-living metros — while HireAHelper’s 2024–2025 Migration Report puts the least expensive metro in its entire dataset, Washington, D.C., at a $333 average across all booked move types, and the most expensive state, Vermont, at $846. The takeaway for anyone using this report to budget: treat the home-size ranges above as your starting point, then adjust up if you’re moving within or into a high-cost, high-demand metro, and adjust down if you’re in a lower cost-of-living region with more mover competition.
How to Use This Data When You Get a Quote
Once you know the expected range for your home size and distance, a quote that lands 25% or more above the upper bound deserves a second opinion, and a quote that lands far below the lower bound deserves scrutiny for what’s excluded (fuel surcharges, stair fees, and valuation coverage are the three most commonly under-quoted line items). Ask every mover for a written, itemized estimate broken down by labor, transportation, packing materials, and valuation coverage — not just a single lump-sum number — so you can compare it directly against the ranges in this report.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Cost of Moving by Home Size
Q: What is the average cost of moving by home size for a local move?
A: Based on This Old House’s 2025 survey, local averages are $1,492 for a one-bedroom, $1,202 for a two-bedroom, $1,479 for a three-bedroom, and $2,799 for a four-bedroom home, all for moves under 50 miles.
Q: How much does a long-distance move cost by home size?
A: Long-distance averages (1,700+ miles) run from $2,916 for a one-bedroom up to $9,228 for a four-bedroom, per the same survey, with moveBuddha’s data showing three-bedroom long-distance moves reaching as high as $14,000 for full-service, fully-packed jobs.
Q: Why does a four-bedroom move cost so much more than a three-bedroom move?
A: The jump reflects both added weight and the extra crew size required — four-bedroom-plus homes typically need 3–4 movers instead of 2, plus they’re statistically more likely to include garage, basement, or storage-room items that inflate the final inventory beyond the initial walkthrough estimate.
Q: Is a studio move ever more expensive than a one-bedroom move?
A: It can be, if the studio includes full packing services or a long-distance route while the one-bedroom comparison is local — distance and service level often outweigh the small size difference between these two categories.
Q: What’s the single biggest lever for lowering the cost of moving by home size?
A: Reducing the shipment weight before the move — donating or selling furniture you won’t need — has the largest effect at every home-size tier, because weight (or cubic footage) is the primary variable in almost every mover’s pricing formula.
Q: How accurate are online moving cost calculators compared to these averages?
A: Calculators from sites like moveBuddha and HireAHelper are built from real booked-move datasets (400,000+ and 114,000+ moves respectively), so they track closely with survey-based averages like This Old House’s, though any individual quote can still vary based on your specific inventory and access conditions.
The clearest takeaway from this data: home size explains most of the spread in moving costs, but it doesn’t explain all of it. Before booking, get your shipment’s estimated weight from at least one mover’s in-home or video walkthrough, compare that quote against the ranges above for your home size and distance, and push back on any estimate that skips packing, fuel, or access fees — those are where quotes quietly balloon past the averages in this report.
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