REALTOR.COM For whatever reason, summer is the prime time of year when Americans pull up roots—and find new places to plant them again.

And this moving season is shaping up as one of the busiest in memory. As the economy continues to improve, job markets are opening wide, the sun is shining on folks’ financial prospects, and people are on the move.

But where are they going, exactly? What are the hot spots drawing planes, trains, and automobiles full of new residents? And likewise, where are they leaving in droves? For insight into people’s past, present, and future moves, we looked to three data sets:

1. Census Bureau migration data collected from 2009 to 2013 that tracked people’s moves in and out of metropolitan areas
2. The number of cross-metro moving requests on moving.com®
3. Cross-metro search traffic on realtor.com®

Take a look at the most common long-distance (farther than 100 miles) migration paths among the 50 largest metropolitan areas based on the volume of people getting a move on:

It‘s hard not to notice the exodus from New York. The New York metro area has the most escapees—but then again, it’s the country’s biggest city. So we adjusted for city size and based our calculation on the ratio of inbound to outbound moves to come up with the most desirable cities—where more people are moving in than moving out.

So here are the cities that people are flocking to:

What do these metros have in common? Affordable housing and strong job markets, mostly. Some of these places are just beginning to join the ranks of the housing market’s elite class.

Florida is clearly the top state for new moves, and not just for the blue-haired set. Three central Florida cities make the cut, largely due to unusually strong job creation. Another factor: housing prices haven’t fully recovered from the crash yet, so there are plenty of deals to be had. Plus, the state has no income tax.

Author: YUQING PAN - Realtor.com