Maine Beats NH as Destination for Mass. Movers

New Hampshire real estate has always been an affordable alternative sought out by residents from the state’s southern neighbor looking to ditch higher home prices – and, in some buyers’ cases, high taxes.

But a new study raises questions whether Portland, Maine is beating out the Granite State in terms of attracting today’s Massachusetts movers, even as the Manchester area continues to rank as the nation’s hottest housing market month after month in Realtor.com analyses and New Hampshire’s three main urban areas dominated Zillow’s ranking of the most popular housing markets in the nation.

Economists at listings portal Redfin investigated where residents of various metro areas were searching for homes, when they searched outside of the metro they lived in. The site’s economist team maintains this behavior can be a good proxy for the level of outbound buyer interest in other communities.

They found that Boston-area residents most often sought out homes in the Portland area, not in any New Hampshire metro.

And a separate analysis by economists at fellow listings portal Zillow found that South Portland, Maine generated the most home searches among the site’s users last year.

One thing is still certain: Massachusetts is continuing to lose people to more affordable states.

When reviewing its 2023 business, U-Haul said it saw Massachusetts’ net loss of one-way movers increase year-over-year, landing the state in 49th place just above California. That state has seen the largest net loss of one-way movers nationwide for four years in a row. Others at the bottom end of this net-loss camp: Michigan, New Jersey and Illinois. Conversely, Texas retained its spot for the sixth year in a row as the state with the biggest net gain in the kind of one-way, less wealthy, do-it-yourself movers that U-Haul serves. Other high-growth states: Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

“While one-way transactions in 2023 remained below the record-breaking levels we witnessed immediately following the pandemic, we continued to see many of the same geographical trends from U-Haul customers moving between states,” John Taylor, U-Haul International president, said in a statement. “Migration to states in the Southeast and Southwest is still very pronounced. Demand for one-way equipment out of certain markets in the Northeast, Midwest and West Coast mirrors what we have seen during recent moving cycles. Wherever DIY customers go, and whatever mobility and self-storage needs they have in 2024, U-Haul will be there with solutions.”

New Hampshire came in at 40th place in the U-Haul study, down two places as well from the company’s 2022 rankings.

A similar analysis by United Van Lines, which typically serves more wealthy movers who make $100,000 or more, found that New Hampshire was narrowly a net importer of its clients, based on one-way moves, with family, retirement and job changes driving the lion’s share of the traffic.

Vermont and Rhode Island, however, beat out their New England peers in the United Van Lines report. The company said over 65 percent of all its one-way moves that started or ended in Vermont involved someone moving there, while that figure was just over 60 percent for Rhode Island.