California’s moving van outflow slowed in 2025

California van moves, average shares of 3 companies. (Graphic by Flourish) 

One yardstick of California’s popularity as a place to live made a slight improvement last year.

My trusty spreadsheet has collected annual migration data dating back to 2004 from three major moving van providers — Allied, Atlas and United. While having someone else move your stuff by van is usually an option for upper-crust Americans changing home states, this metric is worth following because it tends to parallel...