Renters vs. Homeowners: Who Moves Across State Lines in 2026

Of the 6.47 million Americans who moved from a different state in the past year, 3.79 million landed in rented homes and 2.68 million in owner-occupied homes, according to the Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey. Renters make up less than a third of the people living in U.S. households, yet they account for close to three out of every five interstate arrivals. This report breaks down who crosses state lines by housing tenure, how that split has shifted since 2018, which states draw the most renter-heavy inflows, and what the gap means if you are planning a long-distance move in 2026.

Quick answer: Renters move across state lines about three times as often as homeowners. In the 2024 ACS, 3.68% of people in renter-occupied homes had arrived from another state within the past year, compared with 1.19% of people in owner-occupied homes. Renters were 58.6% of all interstate movers while making up 31.4% of the household population.

The Headline Numbers: Renters vs. Homeowners in Interstate Moves

The cleanest national view comes from ACS table B07013, “Geographical Mobility in the Past Year by Tenure for Current Residence.” It counts everyone age one and older living in a household and asks where they lived a year earlier. Tenure refers to the home they live in now, so a person who sold a house in Ohio and rented an apartment in Arizona is counted on the renter side. Keep that in mind: the table measures where interstate movers end up, not what they owned before.

Measure (ACS 2024, 1-year)	Owner-occupied homes	Renter-occupied homes	Total
People in households (age 1+)	225,330,802	102,919,865	328,250,667
Share of household population	68.6%	31.4%	100%
Moved from a different state in past year	2,681,455	3,789,481	6,470,936
Share of all interstate movers	41.4%	58.6%	100%
Interstate move rate	1.19%	3.68%	1.97%
Moved within the same county	6,751,279	12,057,925	18,809,204
Moved from a different county, same state	3,798,955	4,778,978	8,577,933

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 1-Year Estimates, Table B07013. Shares and rates are calculated from the published counts.

Divide 3.68% by 1.19% and you get a ratio of roughly 3.1. Put simply, a person living in a rented home was about three times as likely as a person in an owned home to have arrived from another state in the previous 12 months.

There is a twist in the same table, though. Among people who moved at all, owners were slightly more likely than renters to have crossed a state line. Of the 13.2 million domestic movers who ended up in owner-occupied homes, 20.3% came from another state. Of the 20.6 million domestic movers who ended up in rentals, 18.4% did. Renters move far more often overall, and many of those moves are short hops across town at lease renewal time. When an owner does move, it is more often a big, deliberate relocation.

How the Renter Share Has Shifted Since 2018

The Current Population Survey (CPS) gives a longer time series. Its historical geographic mobility Table A-4 splits movers by tenure every year back to 1988. The CPS and ACS use different samples and methods, so their levels don’t match exactly, but the CPS is useful for spotting direction.

CPS survey year	Interstate movers into owned homes (thousands)	Interstate movers into rented homes (thousands)	Renter share of interstate movers	Owner interstate rate	Renter interstate rate
2018	1,579	3,259	67.4%	0.74%	3.06%
2019	1,441	3,296	69.6%	0.67%	3.11%
2020*	1,816	2,444	57.4%	0.81%	2.45%
2021*	1,780	2,602	59.4%	0.80%	2.52%
2022	2,128	2,756	56.4%	0.96%	2.69%
2023	1,681	2,811	62.6%	0.74%	2.78%

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, CPS ASEC Historical Table A-4, Annual Geographic Mobility by Tenure. *2020 and 2021 rows use 2020 population controls. Shares and rates are calculated from the published counts.

Three phases stand out:

• Before the pandemic (2018–2019): Renters were about two-thirds or more of interstate movers, and the renter move rate was more than four times the owner rate.
• The pandemic and low-rate years (2020–2022): Owner interstate moves climbed to 2.13 million in the 2022 survey, the highest count in this window. Cheap mortgages and remote work let many owners sell in one state and buy in another. At the same time, renter interstate moves fell, and the renter share dropped to 56.4%.
• The high-rate reset (2023): Owner interstate moves fell back to 1.68 million, close to the pre-pandemic level, while renter moves held steady. The renter share bounced back to 62.6%.

The ACS 2024 figure of 58.6% sits within this range. The two surveys measure differently, so it is not a direct continuation of the CPS series.

Why Homeowners Stay Put: The Rate Lock-In Effect

The biggest reason owners moved less after 2022 is financial, and it is well documented. A Federal Housing Finance Agency staff study, Working Paper 24-03, “The Lock-In Effect of Rising Mortgage Rates”, found that for every percentage point the market mortgage rate exceeds a borrower’s existing rate, the probability of selling drops by 18.1%. The authors estimate the lock-in prevented 1.33 million home sales between mid-2022 and the end of 2023.

The gap is still large in 2026. Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey put the average 30-year fixed rate at 7.03% for the week of September 24, 2026. Meanwhile, a Redfin analysis of FHFA National Mortgage Database figures found that 78.8% of mortgaged homeowners still had a rate below 6% as of the third quarter of 2025, and 20% had a rate below 3%.

For an owner with a 3% loan, moving to another state often means giving up that rate and taking on a much larger monthly payment for the same size home. Renters have no rate to lose. Their main switching cost is the timing of a lease, which is why the renter side of the interstate flow has been steadier through the rate cycle.

Monthly housing costs frame the choice

The ACS also shows why the math differs. Median gross rent in the U.S. was $1,487 per month in 2024. Median selected monthly owner costs were $2,035 for homes with a mortgage and $664 for homes without one. Owners who have paid off their homes, or who hold a very low rate, often face a big jump in monthly costs if they move. A renter moving to a cheaper metro may see their housing bill go down right away.

Where Renters Make Up the Largest Share of New Arrivals

The renter share of interstate movers varies a lot by destination. Running the same ACS 2024 table at the state level shows where newcomers mostly rent and where they mostly buy.

Destination	People who moved in from another state	Arrived into rented homes	Renter share of arrivals
District of Columbia	40,944	34,047	83.2%
New York	235,222	170,961	72.7%
North Dakota	23,225	16,854	72.6%
California	371,465	263,441	70.9%
Hawaii	47,271	33,429	70.7%
Washington	206,088	136,850	66.4%
Texas	517,680	320,680	61.9%
North Carolina	275,399	158,506	57.6%
South Carolina	166,766	81,589	48.9%
Florida	547,595	258,828	47.3%
New Hampshire	43,386	19,059	43.9%
Maine	30,443	12,062	39.6%

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 1-Year Estimates, Table B07013, state geographies. Shares calculated from published counts. State estimates carry margins of error, especially in smaller states.

The pattern makes sense once you look at who is moving where:

• High-cost job centers skew renter. Newcomers to D.C., New York, California, Hawaii, and Washington mostly rent. These are expensive places to buy, and many arrivals are early-career workers, students, or people on job transfers who rent first.
• Retirement and lifestyle destinations skew owner. Nine states, including Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Florida, South Carolina, and Delaware, had fewer than half of interstate arrivals moving into rentals. These states draw many older movers who sell a home elsewhere and buy, often with cash from the sale.
• Texas and North Carolina sit in the middle. They pull large numbers of both groups, and roughly three in five newcomers rent at first.

Florida is the clearest example of owner-driven migration. It took in more interstate movers than any other state in the 2024 ACS (547,595), and more of those arrivals moved into owned homes (288,767) than rented ones.

Homeownership Is Flat, So the Renter Pool Isn’t Shrinking

The national homeownership rate has barely moved. The Census Bureau’s Housing Vacancies and Homeownership survey reported a homeownership rate of 65.0% in the second quarter of 2026, virtually the same as a year earlier. The rental vacancy rate was 7.3%, compared with 1.2% for homeowner housing.

Those numbers matter for movers in two ways. First, with roughly a third of households renting, the renter pool that produces most interstate moves isn’t getting smaller. Second, a 7.3% rental vacancy rate means renters arriving in a new state generally have more units to choose from than buyers do, which makes the “rent first, buy later” approach easier to carry out.

What the Data Means for Your Move

Renters and owners face different problems when they move to another state, and the data points to a few practical takeaways.

If you rent

• Lease timing drives your move date. Most renters can’t pick any day they like. Line up your lease end, your new lease start, and your mover’s pickup window before you sign anything. A gap of a few days may mean paying for storage-in-transit.
• Smaller loads, bigger price swings. Apartment moves tend to be lighter, so fixed costs like fuel and travel time are a bigger share of the bill. Get quotes from several licensed interstate carriers.
• Building rules add cost. Elevator reservations, loading dock hours, and long carries from truck to door show up as line items on interstate estimates. Tell the estimator about them up front.

If you own

• Run the rate math first. With the 30-year rate above 7% and most owners holding a rate below 6%, compare your current payment with the payment on a similar home at your destination before you commit.
• Consider renting at the destination. Many owners who cross state lines end up renting first. That can reduce the risk of buying in a market you don’t know yet, though it may mean two moves.
• Owner moves are heavier. A full house means more weight, more packing, and more exposure to estimate changes. That makes the type of estimate you sign especially important.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are renters more likely than homeowners to move to another state?

Yes. In the Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey, 3.68% of people living in rented homes had moved from another state within the past year, compared with 1.19% of people in owned homes. That makes renters roughly three times as likely to be recent interstate movers.

What share of interstate movers are renters?

About 58.6% in the ACS 2024 data: 3.79 million of the 6.47 million people who moved from a different state lived in renter-occupied homes after the move. The CPS puts the share at 62.6% for its 2023 survey year.

Why did homeowners move less after 2022?

Mortgage rates rose sharply while most existing borrowers kept loans at much lower rates. FHFA research found each percentage point of gap between market and existing rates cuts the probability of selling by 18.1%. Selling and buying in a new state means giving up a low rate, so many owners stay put.

Which states have the most renters among new arrivals?

Among states, New York (72.7%), North Dakota (72.6%), California (70.9%), and Hawaii (70.7%) had the highest renter shares of interstate arrivals in the 2024 ACS. The District of Columbia was even higher at 83.2%. Maine, New Hampshire, and Connecticut had the lowest shares, all under 44%.

Does the ACS count tenure before or after the move?

After. Table B07013 classifies people by the tenure of the home they live in at the time of the survey. A homeowner who sold and then rented in a new state counts as a renter mover, so the data describes where movers land, not what they owned before.

Is it cheaper for renters to move across state lines?

Renters usually move fewer belongings, which tends to mean a lower total bill. Actual cost depends on weight or volume, distance, access at both ends, and timing, so the only reliable number is a written estimate based on your own inventory.

Next Step: Get a Written Estimate Based on Your Inventory

Whether you rent or own, the most useful thing you can do before an interstate move is get a written estimate built from a real inventory, not a phone guess. Ask each mover whether the estimate is binding or non-binding. Under federal rules, if you pay up to 110% of a non-binding estimate at delivery (49 CFR 375.407), the mover must release your shipment, with any extra balance billed later. Compare at least two or three written quotes, confirm the carrier’s USDOT registration, and match your pickup date to your lease or closing. If you would like a written estimate for your move, Interstate Moving and Relocation Group can walk through your inventory and put the numbers on paper.