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- Research shows the Magnolia State netted nearly 8,800 new residents in 2024, with 54% of those newcomers settling down and purchasing a home within their first year in the state.
Research by StorageCafe shows Mississippi recorded its fourth consecutive year of positive interstate migration, adding nearly 8,800 net new residents in 2024, with net gains increasing 68% year over year.
These newcomers are not just passing through the Magnolia State; they are putting down roots, according to the report’s author Maria Gatea, Senior Real Estate Editor and Research Writer. Her research shows that 54% of the newcomers to Mississippi purchase a home within their first year in the state, a strong signal of long-term commitment.
That percentage of newcomers buying a home when moving to Mississippi is “one of the highest homeownership rates among inbound movers nationwide.”
“Access to homeownership appears to be a key driver of the move,” Gatea writes in her overview of Mississippi’s positive migration trend. “The bulk of Mississippi’s incoming migration originates from nearby Southern states where real estate markets are significantly more expensive, making homeownership harder to achieve.”
The report lists Alabama, Texas, and Louisiana as the top three states losing residents to Mississippi, and all three have considerably higher home prices on average.
For those leaving Mississippi, the research shows that 70% were renters.
Homes in Mississippi are, on average, 40% cheaper than in Texas, Gatea reports, adding that homes in Mississippi are about 20% less expensive than in Alabama and around 16% less expensive than in Louisiana.
In all, Gatea’s research details that 63,616 moved into Mississippi in 2024 while 54,847 moved elsewhere – a net gain of 8,769 people. The prior three years saw net positive interstate migration of 5,214 in 2023, 11,987 in 2022, and 1,452 in 2021. Before then, Mississippi had seen five straight years of net migration losses.
The research also shows that a good portion of those relocating to Mississippi tend to be on the younger side.
“About 28% are Gen Zers, and the average age of the group is 32, well below the national average of 38.5,” the report overview outlines. “They’re also well-educated: 46% hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to just 29% of the state’s current residents. Their average income of around $53,000 per year also exceeds the state average of $46,000 annually.”
The report notes that for the first time on record, Gen Z is America’s most mobile generation, accounting for nearly one in three interstate moves.
As for other parts of the U.S., the StorageCafe research says America’s pandemic-era relocation boom is officially cooling as interstate migration slowed sharply in 2024 to 2.1% of the U.S. population, compared to 2.3% in 2023 and 2.5% in 2022.
Texas and Florida remain the top states for net domestic migration, but both are seeing markedly slower population gains compared to recent years.
Gatea’s research added that high-cost coastal states remain on the losing end of domestic migration, with California and New York losing nearly 400,000 combined residents to other states in 2024 alone.
StorageCafe is an online service used to search for storage space across the U.S. It’s research team produces reports using industry information related to the self-storage industry and population shifts using data on demographics, migration, cost of living, household composition, spending habits, and other indicators from various sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
