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Tampa Bay lands in Top 20 Cities People Are Leaving in 2025: PODS' May study

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Updated  June 24, 2025 5:28pm EDT
Tampa
FOX 13 News
Tampa Bay lands in Top 20 Cities People Are Leaving in 2025: PODS' May study

Tampa Bay lands in Top 20 Cities People Are Leaving in 2025: PODS' May study

FOX 13's Ariel Plasencia reports.

The Brief

    • According to a study published in May, Tampa Bay landed on PODS’ Top 20 Cities People Are Leaving in 2025.
    • Factors include soaring prices, traffic, and the increasing risk from hurricanes, according to the report.
    • The Miami-area also landed on the Top Move-Out list while Ocala and Jacksonville made the Top Move-In list.

TAMPA - Tampa Bay is No. 16 on the list of Top 20 cities people are leaving in 2025 – a list it has never been on before, according to a study done by popular moving and storage company, PODS.

"People are still moving to Florida, but it is no longer the hotspot of years past," PODS notes.

Here’s the list of the 20 cities with the highest number of 2025 move-outs, according to PODS’ customer data.

  1. Los Angeles, CA
  2. Northern California (San Francisco area)
  3. South Florida (Miami area)
  4. Long Island, NY (Serving parts of NYC)
  5. San Diego, CA
  6. Central Jersey, NJ
  7. Chicago, IL
  8. Boston, MA
  9. Hudson Valley, NY
  10. Denver, CO
  11. Santa Barbara, CA
  12. Seattle, WA
  13. Stockton-Modesto, CA
  14. Washington, DC
  15. Hartford, CT
  16. Tampa Bay, FL
  17. Fresno, CA
  18. Austin, TX
  19. Bakersfield, CA
  20. Philadelphia, PA

Why you should care:

"It’s a somewhat surprising shift considering Tampa Bay was recently on our move-in list, but not entirely shocking with the city’s significant population boom. Development has been ongoing for nearly a decade, prices have soared, traffic has multiplied, and the increasing risk from hurricanes have pushed both transplants and native residents to their limits," according to the study.

Local perspective:

This time of year tends to be a pretty busy time for All About Moving Tampa Bay. But the Largo moving company has noticed something new this year. 

"We always get a lot more out-of-state moves around this time because school's out, but this year is almost double," owner Melisia Diamond told FOX 13.

Diamond said they’ve noticed a lot of people moving out of "beach areas."

So where are their crews helping Floridians move to?

"North Carolina, South Carolina," Diamond said. "We’ve had a lot of Texas as well."

That seems to support what PODS found when analyzing ongoing trends, too.

Here are the top 20 cities with the highest number of 2025 move-ins, according to PODS:

  1. Myrtle Beach, SC/Wilmington, NC
  2. Ocala, FL
  3. Raleigh, NC
  4. Greenville-Spartanburg, SC
  5. Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
  6. Charlotte, NC
  7. Boise, ID
  8. Knoxville, TN
  9. Nashville, TN
  10. Jacksonville, FL
  11. Chattanooga, TN
  12. Huntsville, AL
  13. Portland, ME
  14. Johnson City, TN
  15. Spokane, WA
  16. Atlanta, GA
  17. Greensboro, NC
  18. Asheville, NC
  19. San Antonio, TX
  20. Dover, DE

"Georgia, the Carolinas, and Tennessee: Those are the big hotspots now," Bay Area real estate agent Jaime McKnight with Coldwell Banker said. "I mean, a huge influx of people heading out there."

Local realtors told FOX 13 they’ve noticed the trend, too. They also added that there are plenty of moves happening within the state as well.

"Honestly, you know, you've got a lot of sellers that, if they do stay in the Florida market, they're trying to go to higher ground," McKnight added.

READ: Tampa Catholic High School is ready to hear alum Johni Broome's name called in the NBA Draft

Local buyers seem to be influenced by hurricanes.

"Mainly families we see -- and older couples -- are moving more inland," Diamond told FOX 13.

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The Source: Information for this story was gathered by FOX 13's Ariel Plansecia.

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