You’ve heard of voting with your feet. What about a referendum via U-Haul?
The rental company released its annual growth index this week, which measures the net gain or losses in one-way customers taking their trucks from one state to another, based on over 2.5 million transactions. Texas claimed the top spot for growth. That’s the seventh time it’s happened in the last decade. Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee rounded out the top five. Nine of the top 10 growth states voted red in the last presidential election.
The states with the lowest growth were the usual suspects. California came in last. Massachusetts, New York, Illinois and New Jersey rounded out the bottom five. Of the bottom 10, seven voted blue in the last election.
U-Haul’s results don’t correlate perfectly with population or economic growth, but they underline domestic migration patterns: People want to live in pro-growth, low-tax states, while the biggest losers tend to be places with big governments and high taxes. The consequence of state policies trickle down to the metropolitan level. The top three growing metro areas — Dallas, Houston and Austin — are in Texas. The 10 biggest growth cities are all in Florida, South Carolina and Texas.
The rankings are a reminder that decline is a choice, and that policies which drive up the cost of living, empower union bosses at the expense of workers and otherwise make it harder for entrepreneurs to thrive wind up leading to dire consequences, including less money to support generous welfare states.
Weather might be a factor, but that doesn’t account for sunny California. Oracle founder Larry Ellison probably didn’t take a U-Haul after he sold his San Francisco house for $45 million in December. But that timing is notable because Ellison’s move appears aimed at avoiding a wealth tax that unions are trying to put on the California ballot this November. If it passes, the state would take 5 percent of the net worth from every billionaire who was a resident as of Dec. 31, 2025.
This prompted several billionaires to relocate before New Year’s. Staying behind could have cost Ellison $9.6 billion. Coincidentally, that’s the market capitalization of U-Haul.
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