Every year, moveBuddha surveys Americans about their moving plans, motivations, and hesitations. Their 2026 edition — based on 1,250 Americans surveyed in early January — paints a clear picture: this is the year affordability officially took over as the dominant force in American relocation decisions. People aren't dreaming about where they'd love to live anymore. They're running the numbers.
For New Yorkers, almost every finding in this survey lands differently than it does for the rest of the country. Here's what the data actually says — and what it means if you're living in NYC right now.
Affordability Has Become the #1 Driver — and NYC Feels That More Than Anyone
The most striking finding in the moveBuddha survey is that the share of Americans willing to move "wherever the cost of living is low" nearly doubled year over year, jumping from 8.5% in 2025 to 16% in 2026. That's not a blip — that's a shift in how people are fundamentally thinking about where to live.
For context, 88% of respondents said saving money would influence their decision to move in 2026, making it the single most cited motivating factor — above lower crime, outdoor lifestyle, and more living space.
New Yorkers are living this reality in real time. The average rent in Manhattan now sits above $5,500 per month. Even in the outer boroughs, rents have climbed steadily for years. The moveBuddha data reflects what we hear from people every day: the calculus has changed. The question is no longer "do I want to leave NYC?" It's "at what point do the numbers stop making sense?"
72.9% of Americans Need a 20%+ Housing Discount to Pull the Trigger
Here's a finding that directly applies to every New Yorker weighing a move: nearly three quarters of Americans say it would take a 20% or greater discount on housing costs to justify relocating. That sounds like a high bar — until you actually run the NYC math.
A one-bedroom in Manhattan averages around $5,268 per month. A 20% discount from that is still $4,214 — which rules out most cities in America entirely. But move to Philadelphia and you're looking at roughly $2,000 to $2,500 for the same space. That's a 50%+ reduction, well beyond the threshold the survey identifies as a motivator. Move to the Bronx and you're already there. Move to New Jersey and depending on the town, you're looking at savings of 40 to 60%.
This is why NYC is consistently one of the cities with the highest outbound migration in the country. According to a January 2026 Bank of America Institute report, NYC remains among the metros with the largest population losses in absolute terms. More than one in four new residents in Philadelphia in late 2025 came directly from New York City — people seeking, as the Bank of America report put it, "a lower cost of living within a short train ride of their former home."
If you're thinking about what leaving NYC could realistically save you, our guide on moving from NYC to Philadelphia breaks it down in detail, and our piece on the best places to live in New Jersey close to NYC covers the suburban option without losing the city entirely.
40% of Americans Live Where They Can Afford — Not Where They Want To
This is the stat that should resonate most with New Yorkers. Four in ten Americans surveyed say they live where they can afford to live, not where they'd choose to live. In NYC, that number is almost certainly higher.
The middle-income squeeze is real and well-documented. A 2025 migration analysis found that NYC's largest outbound population isn't wealthy people fleeing taxes — it's residents earning between $51,000 and $200,000 per year. These are working professionals, young families, and long-time residents who simply can't make the math work anymore. They're not necessarily moving somewhere more glamorous. They're moving somewhere they can actually afford to save money, own a car, or consider buying a home.
The irony is that most of these people would prefer to stay in or near NYC. They're not chasing Florida sunshine or Texas sprawl. They want the life they have, at a price that doesn't consume every dollar they earn. That's exactly what the survey finding reflects.
Moving Costs Are Actively Preventing Relocations
One of the most practically useful findings in the survey: 40% of Americans say high moving costs are keeping them from relocating, and 38% say housing costs in their desired destination are the barrier. These are the two biggest obstacles cited — bigger than family ties, bigger than job concerns, bigger than anything else.
In NYC, this dynamic is especially pronounced. Moving in New York is genuinely more expensive than almost anywhere else in the country — freight elevators, COIs, building restrictions, tight stairwells, double-parking logistics, and the sheer density of the city all add friction and cost. It's one reason people stay put even when the numbers tell them they should go. The perceived hassle and upfront cost of moving becomes its own inertia.
This is something worth naming honestly: moving costs are real, but they're also one-time. Paying an extra $1,000 to $2,000 to execute a NYC move properly is recovered in roughly a month of rent savings if you're relocating somewhere significantly cheaper. The math almost always favors moving sooner rather than staying put and continuing to pay New York prices.
Remote Work and Career Moves Are Driving More Decisions Than Ever
The survey found that job opportunities and the possibility of remote work are driving more move decisions than last year — up 10% and 11% respectively year over year. For NYC residents, this cuts both ways.
On one hand, remote work flexibility is what's enabling people to leave. If you no longer need to be in Midtown five days a week, the entire value proposition of paying Manhattan rent collapses. On the other hand, NYC remains one of the strongest job markets in the world for certain industries. Finance, media, tech, fashion, and the arts are still disproportionately concentrated here, and for people building careers in those fields, proximity matters in ways that remote work can't fully replace.
The survey finding about career-driven moves also reflects something happening at the edges: people who left NYC during or after the pandemic for cheaper cities are sometimes coming back, pulled by career opportunities that require physical presence. The net outflow from NYC is real, but so is the continued inflow of ambitious young professionals who see this city as the fastest path to where they want to go professionally.
4X More Americans Would Consider Moving Abroad — Including Some New Yorkers
One of the more striking data points: the share of Americans who said they'd consider relocating to a foreign country jumped from 1% in 2025 to just over 4% in 2026 — a 400% increase. Canada ranked as the top destination, followed by England, Japan, Ireland, and Switzerland.
For most New Yorkers, this is background noise rather than a real option. But it does signal something culturally significant: the assumption that the United States — and specifically its major cities — is automatically the best setting for a good life is being questioned more openly than before. For a small but growing number of people, the calculation of what a dollar buys in terms of quality of life has shifted enough to make international relocation feel worth exploring.
80% of Americans Are Happy Where They Are — And That Includes Most New Yorkers
Here's the counterweight to all of the above: despite the cost pressures, despite the migration data, despite the affordability squeeze — 80% of Americans say they are somewhat or very happy where they are. Moving is hard, disruptive, and emotionally costly. Most people find a way to make it work where they are, and most of the time, that's the right call.
This is worth sitting with if you're a New Yorker wrestling with the question. The people who stay in NYC and make it work aren't being irrational. The city offers things — career opportunity, culture, energy, diversity, access — that genuinely can't be replicated anywhere else. The moveBuddha survey doesn't tell you to leave. It tells you that affordability is increasingly shaping decisions for people who do leave, and that the friction of moving is keeping a lot of people from a decision they might ultimately be glad they made.
If you're still working out whether staying or going makes sense for your situation, our post on why people regret moving out of NYC and our piece on whether it's worth moving to NYC both give honest perspectives from people who've been through it.
The Bottom Line for NYC Residents
The moveBuddha 2026 survey confirms what most New Yorkers already feel: the financial pressure to reconsider where you live has never been stronger, and it's affecting people across income levels and life stages. The city's outbound migration is real, it's driven primarily by affordability, and it's not slowing down.
But 80% of people are happy where they are. The right answer is different for everyone, and it almost always comes down to running the actual numbers for your specific situation — your rent, your income, your job, your life.
If the numbers are finally making sense for your move — whether you're heading out of the city, relocating within it, or arriving for the first time — Zeromax Moving handles NYC relocations every day. Get a free quote here.