It is no secret that Florida continues to grow at a breakneck pace.. However, many would be shocked to learn where in Florida is growing the fastest. According to recent numbers, the Palm Bay-Melbourne area has taken over as the fastest-growing region to move to, with Ocala placing second.
U-Haul published a report based on their company analytics on which area in their market became the most popular to move to in 2023. According to U-Haul's report that measures one-way movers in U-Haul equipment from last year, Palm Bay-Melbourne ranked fourth.
Over 54% of all one-way U-Haul traffic was arriving in Palm Bay-Melbourne, compared to just over 45% departing, the report found. U-Haul calculated their numbers by calculating net gain (or loss) of one-way equipment from customer transactions in 2023. Last year, over 2.5 million one-way transactions with U-Haul equipment were recorded.
U-Haul did clarify that these numbers are not meant to reflect population or economic growth. Rather, it's an effective way of seeing how states and cities are attracting and maintaining residents, according to the report. Suburbs and cities are also clumped together by region to get a general picture of where people are moving in Florida.
"Growth in the Palm Bay-Melbourne area has been increasing at an explosive rate," said Cal Conner, president of U-Haul of Eastern Florida. "The Space Coast has many companies investing in this region and creating jobs such as Embraer, SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and L3Harris Technologies. We have a low cost of living compared to many of the northern cities people have left. Add to that our fantastic year-round climate, and you can see why Palm Bay-Melbourne is such a desirable area to live."
In 2022 Ocala, Florida held the title of the number 1 growing city in U-Haul's market. But with the emergence of Palm Bay-Melbourne, Ocala has slipped, but stayed in the top 2 growing cities across several states in 2023, outranking cities like Dallas, Texas.
