REVEALED: US cities Americans would move to if money was NO object (2024)

Up-and-coming cities Atlanta and Austin have pipped the Big Apple in the rankings for the top cities Americans would want to move to if money were no object.

Los Angeles with an average house price of $810,000 was the most common answer in the poll conducted by real estate advice website Home Bay in December.

But while dreamy views from a Manhattan penthouse over Central Park might appear the next best move, Atlanta, where the average house goes for $365,000, came second. Austin, Las Vegas and Miami also all achieved a bigger share of the votes than NYC. Boston, Dallas and Baltimore were also ranked in the top ten.

The poll comes amid a millionaire's exodus from New York which has continued even after the pandemic sparked a 'work from home' revolution.Thousands of Americans have ditched major metropolitan areas for more affordable states such as Texas.

Figures from the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance in January revealed that the number of those earning more than $25m that fled the state in 2021 was 1,453, just 520 less than the amount that left at the height of lockdowns and intense social distancing.

The most likely destination for fleeing New Yorkers remain New Jersey, Florida and Connecticut.

In 2020, Queens-native billionaire Carl Icahn confirmed he left his hometown for Florida due to taxation reasons.

A recent report by LinkedIn analyzed the areas that have seen an influx of newcomers, as well as those regions that have lost the most residents, between April and October 2020.

Austin was ranked number one in a list of ten cities - the majority of which are located in the south - where the most people have moved during that time period.

For every one person that moved out of the Texas state capital, 1.53 people moved in, according to the data.

Phoenix took the second place spot for the most popular destination, followed by Nashville, Tampa, Jacksonville, Charlotte, Dallas, Denver, Charleston and Seattle.

Meanwhile, Hartford, the capital of Connecticut, saw the largest outflow of people during that time frame.

New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area - large, bustling urban areas that are home to booming tech and financial companies, were ranked second and third, respectively.

According to data from the Council for Community and Economic Research, cost of living played a major factor in where people decided to move.

It showed a trend of people leaving expensive, urban cities - most of which are located in Democratic states - and flocking to smaller towns in the south.

Billionaire Elon Musk's move to Austin follows podcast host Joe Rogan, who in August revealed he would be moving to the Texas state capital to 'have a little bit more freedom.'

Texas has long targeted companies in high-cost California for relocation.

The state is one of the few in the country that offers a lower cost of living and no state income tax, both of which may appeal to businesses as well as working millennials.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott earlier this year celebrate tech giant Oracle's move to the Lone Star state.

It announced it was moving its headquarters from Silicon Valley to Austin, and will let employees choose their office locations and decide whether to work from home.

'Oracle just announced they have moved their headquarters to Austin,' Abbott tweeted. 'Texas is truly the land of business, jobs, and opportunity. We will continue to attract the very best.'

Florida and Texas continue to see the most population growth of any US states.

The Lone Star state has gained close to 900,000 new Texans since 2020 and Florida has just over 700,000 new official residents - a population increase of nearly 2 percent.

Texas crossed the 30-million-population threshold in 2022 and as such has joined California as the only state with a resident population of more than 30 million.

In January of 2020, New York State introduced sweeping criminal justice legislation that eliminated cash bail for the majority of misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies, including robberies.

New York, where the average rent is now more than $5,200 a month, lost more residents than any other state between April 1, 2020 and July 1, 2021, many of whom fled a staunch set of pandemic restrictions and high taxes for friendlier business environments, according to MarketWatch.

Crime in Manhattan surged 23.5 percent in 2022 as robberies, rapes and felony assaults all climbed - though murders and shootings both decreased by double digits.

Grand larceny - or thefts of more than $1,000 - spiked by more than 60 percent in New York City this year.

The issue has become so significant that Mayor Eric Adams held a meeting with business leaders at Gracie Mansion earlier this month to address it - though a solution remains far from reachable as the city heads into the New Year.

Since April of 2020, New York has, on net, lost half a million people. Its current population was recorded as 19,677,151, making it the fourth most populous state after California, Texas and Florida.

In California, where once-a-year massive wildfires and treacherous mudslides threaten homes, the population has also dipped by slightly more than 508,000 since 2020.

Deputy director of external affairs at the California Department of Finance, H.D. Palmer, told the Sacramento Bee that the shrinking population of the Golden State is a reflection of its ongoing housing affordability crisis.

'If you talk to demographers, they'll say that one of the factors is the cost of housing. And that's continued to be a challenging issue for the state,' he said.

According to the Bee, in Sacramento - where the median household income in 2021 was $71,047 - it requires a household salary of around $145,000 to afford the median-priced house in the region.