NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – Middle Tennessee is not only a top destination for tourists, but for out-of-towners looking for a place to call their own.

PODS Enterprises, a moving and storage company, just released its second annual relocation trends report that identified the top 20 moving destinations over the last year. Nashville came in third, behind number two, Dallas-Fort Worth, and number one, Sarasota.

According to the data, Nashville has claimed the third-highest increase in residents from January 2021 through March 2022. 

According to the Census Bureau, from 2020 to 2021 Nashville MSA had a net in-migration of about 13,234. That translates to about 36 people moving a day to the Nashville region. 

“The cost of living, overall, is still probably most families’ number one desire to move to this area and jobs too, we are seeing quite a few job transfers,” said Kate Goeringer, a Real Estate Agent with Brick Realty.

High state taxes, cost of living, densely populated cities, and COVID-19, are all factors for the moves.

“California is still #1, the other states we’re seeing coming in are Illinois, Michigan and I do have quite a few New York buyers I’ve been working with as well,” Goeringer said.

The influx of wealthy out-of-towners is contributing to the rise in home prices here.

“Strictly, as it relates to real estate, their money is spending stronger in our market,” said Jeff Checko, a realtor with the Ashton Real Estate Group of RE/MAX Advantage.

The average out-of-towner moving to Nashville in 2021 had $736,900 to spend on a home, 28.5% higher than the $573,400 average budget for local buyers, according to a report by Redfin. It’s the biggest gap among the cities included in the study.