Two unlikely cities—Joplin, Missouri, and Amarillo, Texas—saw the largest surges in domestic mobility over the past decade, according to a new report by the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
In Joplin, the fifth-largest metro in Missouri, domestic mobility was up 1.6 percent between 2014 and 2024—the biggest increase in the entire nation. In Amarillo, a hub of the Panhandle, it climbed by 1.4 percent within the same time frame.
While these sound like small numbers, the increases reported by both cities are significant in the context of a nationwide decline in domestic migration—especially since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic put a halt to the flexibility and mobility unleashed by the rise of remote work.
Between 2014 and 2024, domestic mobility plunged from 14.3 percent to 11 percent nationwide. Joplin and Amarillo are among a handful of cities that have defied this broader trend, continuing to attract movers thanks to their dynamic job markets and affordable housing.
Which Metros Have Seen An Increase In Domestic Mobility?
Joplin and Amarillo saw the biggest 10-year increase in domestic mobility in the country, according to NAR. They were followed by Tuscaloosa, Alabama, (+1.2 percent), Salisbury, Maryland, (+1.2 percent), Greensboro, North Carolina (+1.0 percent).
McAllen, Texas, Trenton, New Jersey, Burlington, Vermont, and New Haven, Connecticut, all reported 0.3 percent increases in domestic mobility between 2014 and 2024, while Wheeling, West Virginia, and Crestview, Florida, experienced a 0.2 percent hike.
In Amarillo, the domestic mobility rate reached about 17.9 percent in 2024, up from 16.5 percent a decade earlier—a level well above the national average of 11 percent and significantly higher than many larger metros. According to NAR data, nearly one in five residents in the Amarillo metro area moved within the past year.
For Hannah Jones, senior economic research analyst at Realtor.com, what played in Amarillo’s favor has been “its moderate size, affordability, and employment base” which makes the city “attractive to families and retirees,” she wrote in a recent report.
While Joplin saw the biggest 10-year increase in domestic mobility, it had a lower rate in 2024 than Amarillo, at 13.2 percent.
The second- and third-highest domestic mobility rates in 2024 were reported in Tuscaloosa (16.6 percent) and Crestview (16.3 percent).
This increase in domestic mobility indicates there is much greater movement in the Amarillo housing market than in the sluggish nationwide market, researchers with the group said, with people in the city buying and selling properties.
“For realtors, this matters,” Nadia Evangelou, principal economist and director of real estate research for NAR, wrote in the report. “Markets with higher domestic mobility tend to generate more consistent transaction opportunities. Even when national sales activity slows, elevated local mobility can generate more listings, buyer demand, and more transitions between renting and homeownership.”
She added: “It often indicates that households are still making decisions, still relocating, and still participating in the housing market.”
What Is Happening In the Rest Of the Country?
Americans are currently relocating at historically low rates, continuing a long‑running decline that predates the pandemic. But within that slowdown, migration patterns have become more polarized.
In the years preceding the beginning of the pandemic and during the health emergency, population growth tilted away from expensive coastal metros toward the South, the Mountain West, and smaller metropolitan areas, as Americans sought cheaper housing, more space, and greater job flexibility.
The rise of remote work during the pandemic briefly accelerated longer‑distance moves, to the advantage of states like Texas, Florida, North and South Carolina, and Idaho.
Since 2022, however, domestic migration has cooled, with high mortgage rates, elevated home prices, and limited housing supply making moves more difficult, together with employers summoning workers back to the office.
As a result, fewer Americans are moving overall, even as regional winners and losers continue to emerge beneath the surface of a more sedentary population. Roughly 11 percent of Americans changed residence in 2024, the lowest level recorded in at least 50 years, according to Census Bureau data. That was down from 14.3 percent a decade earlier and far below the roughly 20 percent annual moving rate seen in the 1960s.
