Have you noticed more moving vans around your neighborhood? Summer is peak moving season, with roughly half of all moves taking place between the Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends.
If you're wondering where your new neighbors are from, a new report provides some clues — at least if your new neighbors moved via U-Haul.
The do-it-yourself moving company released its Midyear Migration Trends report, an analysis of its data on one-way moves for the first half of 2025. The report highlights the data for the nation's largest metro areas, including Seattle.
It's probably not a surprise, but the data shows people who move with U-Haul to the Seattle area tend to come from relatively close states. Just one East Coast state made the Top 10 list for U-Haul movers to Seattle: Florida, which ranked 10th.
Excluding people who moved from within Washington, Oregon ranked as the Seattle area's No. 1 state from which people moved so far this year, with California in second place. That's a reversal from the 2024 report, when California took the top spot and Oregon was No. 2. Texas was the third biggest sender of U-Haul movers to the Seattle area this year, replacing Arizona, which had been No. 3 in 2024.
With Oregon as the top feeder state to the Seattle metro, it's no surprise that Portland ranked as the No. 1 metro area for sending U-Haul movers our way. The Bay Area, which includes the San Francisco and San Jose metros, ranked second, a big jump from 2024, when it only ranked seventh. Phoenix was the No. 3 metro this year.
U-Haul also breaks out the top metro areas within Washington for movers to the Seattle area. Spokane was No. 1 this year, followed by Vancouver, Wash., and Bellingham. Spokane was also the top in-state origin metro in 2024, but Vancouver wasn't in the Top 5. Bellingham was second and Yakima was third last year.
Seattle was also a top place from where people moved to several other large metro areas. A bunch of these were in California. For the Bay Area, Seattle ranked as the No. 1 sender of U-Haul movers. Seattle also ranked third for Los Angeles, ranked fourth for Riverside, fifth for Sacramento and fourth for San Diego.
In metro areas outside of California, Seattle ranked fifth for sending U-Haul movers to Phoenix. And for Portland, Seattle ranked as the No. 1 origin metro, just as Portland was for Seattle this year.
Zooming out to the state level, Washington was a Top 10 origin state for many metro areas, including Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Portland, and a bunch of California metros: Los Angeles, the Bay Area, San Diego, Riverside and Sacramento.
The report notes many of the largest U.S. metros are growing again, reversing the slowdown that happened during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the number of U-Haul moves to the largest metros increased in 2025.
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