Not having a state income tax helps, a trait shared by Florida and Texas, making them the number one and number two destinations for people moving from one state to another, respectively.
But what continues to make Texas the number two choice for domestic migration is the economy. We know where they’re come from because we see their license plates on the roads. “We have California, we have a lot of people from Illinois, a lot of people from New York, from Pennsylvania,” says Lila Valencia, senior demographer at the Texas Demographic Center in Austin, ticking off the states effortlessly. Florida is number one.
Job availability and affordable housing still brings other state transplants in by the droves, swelling populations in the biggest cities like Houston and Dallas with new people familiar with big city living. “People that are coming to more affordable places to live in Texas come from larger, well-established sort of metropolitan areas in the country,” Valencia tells KTRH News. You’ll see your share of Patriots and Bears fans, that’s for sure.
Prior to 2017, most new residents to Texas were coming from other states, but since then the trend has shifted slightly favoring international migration, the regions of Asia and India producing more new Texans than Latin America.
Valencia says people to moving to Texas as a retirement option is also fueling some of that boom. Most transplants are working age 20-45 year olds, but increasingly the 65+ crowd is heading to Hill Country from the frigid north as a final destination.