perennial boomer retirement favorite<\/a>, came in at No. 3 for boomers and was the top net-gain state for Gen X. Both generations\u2019 top five metros were all in Florida, South Carolina, Arizona and Tennessee. Nearly every metro on the two lists is in the Sun Belt. The only exceptions were Salt Lake City, No. 6 for Gen X, and Spokane, Wash., No. 7 for boomers.<\/p>\nMillennials\u2019 metro picks also lean toward the Sun Belt, led by Dallas\u2013Fort Worth, Houston and Orlando, with Boise, Idaho, and the Bay Area as the main outliers. At the state level, though, millennials showed up in the Midwest, with Ohio, Indiana, Minnesota and Wisconsin all in their top 10. U-Haul attributed that shift to career moves. Gen Z\u2019s list was the most geographically diverse, with major metros in the Northeast, Midwest, South and West.<\/p>\n
Florida was the only state to rank in the top 10 for all four generations. Texas made every list except the boomers\u2019, and Idaho made every list except Gen Z\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Millennials account for the largest share of one-way U-Haul transactions, followed closely by Gen X. Together, the two generations make up more than 60% of the company\u2019s rentals. Because each move is assigned to the generation of the person who signs the rental contract, the picture can blur. U-Haul noted sizable Gen X gains in college towns such as Gainesville, Fla., and Madison, Wis., suggesting many parents are renting trucks to move their kids to school. Customers must also be 18 to rent a U-Haul truck (16 for a trailer), so the youngest members of Gen Z aren\u2019t represented.<\/p>\n
U-Haul isn\u2019t the only moving company, and plenty of Americans relocate without renting a truck at all, so the report isn\u2019t a definitive measure of population change. Still, the company handles millions of one-way moves each year, which makes its data a useful snapshot of where Americans are heading.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s U-Haul\u2019s full generational breakdown:<\/p>\n
Baby boomers (born 1946\u201364)<\/p>\n
Top U-Haul net-gain states (July 2025\u2013June 2026)<\/p>\n
South Carolina<\/p>\n
North Carolina<\/p>\n
Florida<\/p>\n
Arizona<\/p>\n
Alabama<\/p>\n
Tennessee<\/p>\n
Arkansas<\/p>\n
Idaho<\/p>\n
Oklahoma<\/p>\n
Georgia<\/p>\n
Top U-Haul net-gain metros (July 2025\u2013June 2026)<\/p>\n
Gainesville-Ocala, FL<\/p>\n
Myrtle Beach, SC<\/p>\n
Phoenix, AZ<\/p>\n
Charleston, SC<\/p>\n
Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ<\/p>\n
Daphne-Fairhope-Foley, AL<\/p>\n
Spokane, WA<\/p>\n
Tucson, AZ<\/p>\n
Daytona Beach, FL<\/p>\n
Wilmington, NC<\/p>\n
Gen X (born 1965\u201380)<\/p>\n
Top U-Haul net-gain states (July 2025\u2013June 2026)<\/p>\n
Florida<\/p>\n
Texas<\/p>\n
South Carolina<\/p>\n
Tennessee<\/p>\n
Alabama<\/p>\n
Utah<\/p>\n
Idaho<\/p>\n
North Carolina<\/p>\n
Arizona<\/p>\n
Arkansas<\/p>\n
Top U-Haul net-gain metros (July 2025\u2013June 2026)<\/p>\n
Fort Myers, FL<\/p>\n
Charleston, SC<\/p>\n
North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, FL<\/p>\n
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL<\/p>\n
Nashville, TN<\/p>\n
Salt Lake City, UT<\/p>\n
Wilmington, NC<\/p>\n
Tampa, FL<\/p>\n
San Diego, CA<\/p>\n
Gainesville-Ocala, FL<\/p>\n
Millennials (born 1981\u201396)<\/p>\n
Top U-Haul net-gain states (July 2025\u2013June 2026)<\/p>\n
Florida<\/p>\n
Texas<\/p>\n
California<\/p>\n
Ohio<\/p>\n
Idaho<\/p>\n
Indiana<\/p>\n
Minnesota<\/p>\n
Wisconsin<\/p>\n
Washington<\/p>\n
Virginia<\/p>\n
Top U-Haul net-gain metros (July 2025\u2013June 2026)<\/p>\n
Dallas-Fort Worth, TX<\/p>\n
Houston, TX<\/p>\n
Orlando, FL<\/p>\n
San Francisco Bay Area, CA<\/p>\n
North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, FL<\/p>\n
Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL<\/p>\n
Boise, ID<\/p>\n
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL<\/p>\n
Brownsville-McAllen, TX<\/p>\n
Huntsville, AL<\/p>\n
Gen Z (born 1997\u20132012)<\/p>\n
Top U-Haul net-gain states (July 2025\u2013June 2026)<\/p>\n
Texas<\/p>\n
California<\/p>\n
New York<\/p>\n
Illinois<\/p>\n
Colorado<\/p>\n
Washington<\/p>\n
New Jersey<\/p>\n
Florida<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania<\/p>\n
Nevada<\/p>\n
Top U-Haul net-gain metros (July 2025\u2013June 2026)<\/p>\n
New York City, NY<\/p>\n
Dallas-Fort Worth, TX<\/p>\n
Chicago, IL<\/p>\n
San Francisco Bay Area, CA<\/p>\n
Los Angeles, CA<\/p>\n
Austin, TX<\/p>\n
Charlotte, NC<\/p>\n
Denver, CO<\/p>\n
Seattle, WA<\/p>\n
Houston, TX<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California\u2019s population has shrunk since 2020, but a new U-Haul report suggests young Americans haven\u2019t given up on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[185640,7,9,8,119815,35095,1011,189424],"class_list":["post-483847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-baby-boomers","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-gen-x","tag-gen-z","tag-housing","tag-millennials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}