Booming ‘Burbs: The Suburbs Americans are flocking to where jobs are hot

A crux of the American dream since the post-war boom, suburbs continue to attract more movers than any other type of neighborhood. With their promise of stability, community, and homeownership, they offer the space and amenities that many seek. They’re known as family-friendly havens, safely outside the noise of the employment-rich cities around which they sprawl.

Essential to the ideal of suburban homeownership is steady employment. Today’s top suburbs drawing interest from relocating Americans are known not only for their lifestyle appeal, but also for their strong job markets.

In 2024, which of America’s suburbs have local job markets strong enough to attract movers from all over the country?

Using search data from the moveBuddha Moving Cost Calculator, we found that among more than 210K move inquiries made so far in 2024, there are 43 suburbs where this aspect of the American dream is alive and well. In addition to generating more searches from people looking to move in compared to out, these top suburbs also have annual job growth over the August 2024 national average of 1.55%.

Big Takeaways

• Growing gems: Just 43 American suburbs in 2024 are popular with movers and are in metros that can boast above-average job growth.
• Southern coastal cities dominate move searches, with 9/10 of the most popular cities located within the region.
• #1 Summerville, SC, a Charleston suburb, soars almost 38% above the closest competition for desirability: 3.76 people search for a move into this popular suburb for every outbound search.
• The best for affordability, Broken Arrow, OK, a Tulsa suburb, sees average home prices of just $275,250. On the flip side, famous and Hollywood-adjacent Beverly Hills, CA sets buyers back more than 11x Broken Arrow’s average: a typical home here will cost buyers $3,511,964.
• The 5 job-magnet suburbs everyone wants to move to in 2024, in metros with the fastest-growing job markets, with 2023-2024 job growth from 4.2% to 2.9%, vastly higher than the national 1.55% average: Summerville, SC; Mount Pleasant, SC; Meridian, ID; Henderson, NV; and Bentonville, AR.

The job-magnet suburbs everyone wants to move to in 2024: Summerville, SC

While not every suburb in the top ten for popularity has ocean waves lapping at its shores, all are within 2 hours of a beach day. The coastal South reigns supreme for its suburbs where people want to move in, and where far fewer residents considering a move-out.

The 10 top job-magnet suburbs everyone wants to move to in 2024, with the highest in-to-out move ratios:

1. Summerville, South Carolina
2. Conway, South Carolina
3. Beverly Hills, California
4. Winter Garden, Florida
5. Davenport, Florida
6. Bluffton, South Carolina
7. Cary, North Carolina
8. Clermont, Florida
9. Wake Forest, North Carolina
10. Conroe, Texas

Nine of the ten most popular suburbs fall within just three states: North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida. In North Carolina’s Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill metro area, Cary and Wake Forest both rank as top suburban destinations. In Florida, three Orlando-area suburbs take the prize: Clermont, Winter Garden, and Davenport. South Carolina’s top suburbs are spread across the state.

With the highest move-in ratio, Summerville, SC, sees 3.76 people searching to move in for every resident looking to leave. A suburb of Charleston, Summerville’s popularity among prospective movers may be due to the incredibly strong job growth in the metro area – 4.2% between August 2023 and 2024. Known for its red-brick historic district, farmer’s market, and community events like the Flowertown Festival, Summerville is also one of just three suburbs in the top ten with an average home value under $400K (the others are Conway, SC, and Davenport, FL).

The juggernaut of southern suburbs is broken by only Beverly Hills, CA, where 2.54 new residents express a desire to move in for every outbound search.

The most affordable job-magnet suburb for relocations is Broken Arrow, OK

With an average home price of $310,641, the nation’s most affordable suburbs offer a slice of the American dream at a price, on average, 7% less than the average American home. Broken Arrow, OK, makes suburban living even more attainable. Home prices in this Tulsa suburb average $275,250.

Compared to the most popular suburbs of 2024, there’s more geographic diversity in the range of states in which you’ll find the most affordable suburban locations.  All the same, two cities, Conway, SC and Conroe, TX, make both top 10 lists for most popular and most affordable suburbs.

The 10 most affordable of the job-magnet suburbs everyone wants to move to in 2024:

*starred means they are among the top 10 with the highest in-to-out move ratio

In general, suburbs can provide some price relief compared to cities. But that’s not always the case: since the pandemic, strong interest in suburbs has meant real estate costs have caught up to their urban counterparts. If demand for suburbs stays strong, these affordable hotspots may not stay that way for long.

The least affordable job-magnet suburb for relocations? It’s Beverly Hills, CA

Even though Beverly Hills, CA, makes the top ten, it’s an outlier with an average home price of $3,511,964, more than 685% more than the average of the other top 10 suburbs.

The 10 least affordable of the job-magnet suburbs everyone wants to move to in 2024

*starred means they are among the top 10 with the highest in-to-out move ratio

It’s worth noting that Beverly Hills may simply be earning many searches for moves in due to its fame. Or, these searches may be for new moves into the nearby, highly coveted Beverlywood neighborhood. The Los Angeles metro area to which Beverly Hills belongs also has one of the lower job growth rates on our list, just 1.6%.

From Princeton, NJ, to Gig Harbor, WA, and Miami Beach, FL, the most expensive suburbs offer amenities that are hard to find elsewhere, like iconic views, Hollywood caché, or an amazing academic lecture circuit. They’re still able to draw residents despite their high housing prices.

Job-magnet suburbs with the highest job growth: South Carolina’s growing tech hub

A small community. A popular destination. Temperate weather. Most of the top suburbs have them all. But which are the best at also growing job opportunities? For those looking for a work and lifestyle change, these suburbs might be the ticket.

Particularly those in the Charleston region, South Carolina’s fastest-growing metro area.

The top 5 job-magnet suburbs everyone wants to move to in 2024, with the highest job growth:

*starred means they are among the top 10 with the highest in-to-out move ratio

The Charleston area’s popularity boom is benefiting the local economy. Between May 2023 and 2024, South Carolina added over 5,500 construction jobs to manage the growth. But the 80K+ jobs added in total point to an economy that’s fueled by more than just construction, helping establish South Carolina as a prime destination for new residents looking for their own slice of the low country’s economic pie.

Tech watchers should note that South Carolina’s low country, where Summerville and Mt. Pleasant are wooing new residents, ranks 5th in the country for tech industry output. That output is increasing with a new Google data center and local startups like Gigpro making a splash.

While many suburban moves are spurred on by remote work trends that allow more affordable lifestyles in far-flung locations, many movers also consider living near a robust job market to be a real estate feature that can support them should they lose a remote job. As a result, suburbs and small towns — especially near jobs — remain popular.

The best suburb? It’s the one that’s right for you.

Metro areas with robust job growth are fueling interest in nearby suburbs, with newcomers drawn by the chance to build both a stable career and a comfortable life. Ranging from some of the most iconic and pricey zip codes in the country to lesser-known but fast-growing communities, these 43 suburbs prove that aspirations for the American dream can take vastly different forms.

Together, they highlight a clear trend: as employment opportunities expand, so does the appeal of surrounding suburban areas. These booming suburbs illustrate how the promise of work and homeownership remains central to where Americans want to live in 2024.

Methodology

We used moveBuddha’s 210,788 moving search data from January 1, 2024, and October 1, 2024, to assess interest in where Americans are looking to move. Of all the cities they searched, we filtered by population, focusing on 526 cities with at least 50 searches both in and out.

Of these, 128 had an in-to-out ratio of greater than 1.25 (1.25 moves heading into the city for every move leaving).

From there, we further trimmed the list to include only suburbs — leaving 67 total cities.

Looking at job growth, 43 of those 67 cities have enjoyed year-over-year growth better than the national average of 1.55%, according to the BLS Metro Area Job Growth Data (Aug. 2023 to Aug. 2024).

From that pool of 43 top suburbs, we analyzed average home value using the Zillow Home Value Index.

All category rankings come from that pool of 43 top suburbs: top suburbs for popularity are those with the highest in-move to out-move ratio, with many more movers wanting to settle there than those wishing to leave. Affordability is based on the highest and lowest average home prices. Job growth is based on the highest percentage of annual growth from the BLS.