People Love to Relocate to Texas — Especially DFW

Texas welcomed 524,511 new residents in 2017, and 230,118 of them found homes in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area, the latest Texas Relocation Report from Texas REALTORS® revealed.

The report, which was released on Valentine’s Day, analyzed migration data from the U.S. Census Bureau and U-Haul, found that Texas ranked second in the nation for relocation activity in 2017, and the DFW area was the spot most people relocated to.

“Texas remained a hotbed of relocation activity in 2017 due in part to our diverse job opportunities, record-breaking housing market and booming economy,” Tray Bates, 2019 chairman of Texas REALTORS®, said in a statement. “This is the fifth year in a row that Texas has gained more than 500,000 new residents from out of state and we anticipate that trend will continue in the coming years.”

Despite being the second-most popular state to relocate to, 2017’s net gain of residents from out-of-state was actually less than 2016’s 87,656 at 57,173 in 2017.

Most new Texans came from California with 63,175 — Florida was second at 33,740, followed by Louisiana, Illinois, and New York. The Los Angeles, New York City, and Chicago areas were the previous hometowns of most of the new residents to the state.

But people also left Texas for other states — at 467,338, the state ranked third when it came to people leaving the state — most often for California, Oklahoma, Florida, Colorado, or Louisiana.

While Harris County had the largest net gain of 83,282 residents relocating from out of state, four of the top 10 counties with the highest net gain of out-of-state residents were in North Texas — Dallas, Tarrant, Collin, and Denton counties.

“As more residents and businesses choose to put down roots in Texas, we need to preserve our favorable conditions to buy, sell, rent and own real estate here,” Bates said. “As always, Texas REALTORS® will take the lead in advocating for policies at the state Capitol and in our communities that support our increasing population and strong economy.”