Ever wonder where all those new Florida residents relocate from? Now we know

With warm weather and a housing market that for the most part isn’t too hot to handle, Florida is the No. 1 destination for home buyers moving out of state.

According to a study released this week by LendingTree, the Sunshine State ranked first in mortgage requests in 18 of the 50 states during the past year.

LendingTree reviewed purchase mortgage loan requests for primary residences in all 50 states from October 2016 through October 2017 to find the percentage of all requests from residents looking to move outside of their current state.

Of all purchase mortgage requests during the study’s one-year time period, 9.14 percent were for consumers looking to move to Florida.

Moreover, seven states had more than 20 percent of buyers targeting Florida as their next destination – Georgia (26.3 percent), Connecticut (22.5), Alabama (22.1), Maine (22.1), New York (21.6), Michigan (21.5) and New Jersey (21.1).

Also, of the states in which the residents’ most-popular new location does not border their current state, 16 were Florida.

The statewide median sales price for single-family existing homes in September was $239,900, although they were higher in Manatee County ($295,000) and Sarasota County ($269,900).

In addition, LendingTree created a moving popularity score index to analyze destination states adjusted by population. South Carolina scored highest and was followed by Florida, Delaware, North Carolina and Georgia, revealing a Southern theme in the preferences of out-of-state home buyers.

The states home buyers were least attracted to were South Dakota, California, Minnesota, North Dakota and Hawaii.

Wondering where Floridians tired of the sun and fun look to go? Not too far, actually, with Georgia the top destination. The study reported that 9.5 percent of those applying for purchase mortgage loan requests in Florida were looking to move out of state, with 12 percent targeting the Peach State.

This story was originally published November 2, 2017 at 12:41 PM with the headline "Ever wonder where all those new Florida residents relocate from? Now we know."