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Last December we blogged about U.S. migration trends as reported by Forbes. The blog, "A Visual Look at American Migration and Relocation in 2011", included an interactive map that visually showed where people were moving to. Similar to 2011, the relocation trends of Americans continue to focus on the south, notably cities in warmer climates. Only 3 of the top 10 in 2012 are in colder climates: Denver, Seattle and Chicago.

The 2012 report was compiled with data from our favorite truck

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We may be a moving company, but we often like to blog about city rankings and migration trends. After all, city rankings are a great way to measure how a region is doing and thus, where people will be moving to or from.

One metropolitan area that never ceases to amaze me is the Washington D.C. area. For the past ten years the DC area has consistently topped national rankings, from "Top Earning Towns" to "Most Literate City". It's these high rankings which people use to measure the quality of

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The folks over at Forbes are always looking for ways to report fun statistics, apparently this week they decided upon the "Friendliest Towns in America". I've decided not to question how they were able to measure this statistic, I'll leave that part up to the brains at Forbes. Instead, I thought it might be fun to compare the friendliest towns to other city ranking lists, such as the CNN Money, "Best Places to Live" and Forbes, "Top 10 Cities Where Americans are Moving".

Although not

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Is your home value increasing? If you are like many Americans it probably is not, at least not by very much. According to a price report by Fiserv Case-Shiller, average home prices are expected to rise a measly 0.3% in the next year and only 3.3% in the next five years. That's a long way from the 25%+ annual appreciation many metropolitan areas experienced during the housing boom. But, as with every study, there are always outliers that will experience higher or lower gains.

The same price

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So you didn't win the 550 million dollar Powerball on Wednesday, huh? Well, if you happen to be an entrepreneur or tech savvy person there is some good news. According to the Metro Wealth Index from Capgemini, many major metropolitan areas are recording an increase in the growth percentage of millionaires. San Jose, California, a large city within Silicon Valley, had a 2.1% increase in their millionaire population between 2010-2011. It's not all good news though, some cities, such as Detroit,

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Are you ready to relocate somewhere new but are not sure where to go? Perhaps a look at the top 10 "Cities Where Americans are Moving", published by Forbes, will help you make a decision. The data is based on the most recent statistics available from July 2010 to July 2011.

The biggest winner during this period has been Texas, landing 4 of the top 10 spots. It's no surprise that Texas is such a strong winner, they have affordable housing, moderate weather and several major metropolitan areas

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2011 was the first year in which "Baby Boomers", those born between 1946-1964, began hitting retirement age. Over the next 19 years approximately 77 million Americans' will retire, many of whom may be looking for a new place to live. So where do you go? Luckily, large outfits like Yahoo! and Newsweek research and publish town, city and state rankings in a variety of categories. Today's category? The 10 Best Places to Retire in 2012 as reported by Yahoo!.

Compare the 2012 rankings to our 2011

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In addition to the "Top Earning Towns" list released this week by CNN Money, the annual "Best Places to Live" rankings have also been released. If you are relocating soon you may want to take a peek and see if your new city lands on this list.

This years results were a bit surprising, especially the top 25. While the Washington D.C. area continued to rank well, it was the only 'usual suspect' to do so. This years top 25 cities were dominated by three, less publicized, metropolitan markets:

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It's that time of year again - No, I'm not referring to the kids moving back to college - But rather the onslaught of city rankings for every category imaginable. One of this weeks most talked about rankings is "Top Earning Towns" published by CNN Money. The results are a little more spread out than expected, but the usual suspects continue to dominate the top 10. Bethesda, MD and Ashburn, VA - both in the Washington D.C. area - ranked 1st and 6th. The highly educated suburbs of Boston,

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Back in October we blogged about the "2011 Best and Worst Housing Markets" as published by Business Week. We were blown away when we read that Florida accounted for 17 of the top 25 spots on the worst housing markets list which surely meant certain doom for the state. Well, as we have reviewed before, sometimes it's all about how you analyze the data. Only four months after dominating the worst housing market list Florida has made headlines again, this time on CNBC's "Top 10 Turnaround Towns".

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A recent Forbes article titled, "America's Most Affluent Neighborhoods" was released earlier this week. If you take a moment to ponder the subject line you are likely making guesses in your head before reading further; perhaps Beverly Hills, Hollywood or Scottsdale, Arizona. Although those are all good guesses you would be incorrect, at least according to Forbes. Of the five neighborhoods making the cut only one seems out of place, Coldstream CDP, Ohio. According to Forbes, Coldstream CDP is in

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Since the recession began in 2008 it seems like most news has been negative, especially when related to the economy, housing or employment. This week however, the Payscale Index released the top 10 cities which experienced the largest increase in wage growth in the private sector. The report notes that the rankings are based on the fourth quarter of 2010 through the fourth quarter of 2011.

After reviewing the numbers we are delighted to see such diversity in the rankings. No single state, region

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Not too long ago we posted about the "Most Affordable Retirement Cities" as ranked by SmartMoney. This week U.S. News released their "Top 10 Places to Retire on Social Security Alone" which caught our attention. After reviewing their top ten we wanted to note that 8 of the top 10 are solely college towns, while 9 of 10 are home to medium or large universities. Of the two cities that were not solely college towns, Sunland Park, NM and Syracuse, NY, only Sunland Park is not home to a college.

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SmartMoney recently released an article titled "Retire Here, Not There", which showcased several affordable cities for retirement. This year however, they added an additional twist by accounting for the top ranked cities unemployment rate. According to SmartMoney, the average retiree is $30,000 short of their savings goal and may have a need for employment, even if just part time. The 2011 winners were selected on a range of criteria from unemployment rate to median home prices and cost of

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Last week we blogged about the top five cities on the "2011 Best and Worst Housing Markets" list. The Fort Lauderldale-Miami metro area snagged the #1 spot on both the best and worst lists, providing a glimmer of hope to homeowners in South Florida. Unfortunately the positive news ends there as Florida dominated the top 25 worst home markets, the emphasis on the South Florida market. It's widely been publicized that Miami and Fort Lauderdale were two of the hardest hit regions by the housing

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It seems like every time we post new rankings about the best places to live the Washington D.C. area comes out on top. No, we're not biased to the DC area (although we were founded in Maryland in 2004), instead our encouragement lies in the DC Metro's consistent ability to saturate the rankings. Just last week we published "Americas Best and Worst Housing Markets" in which Washington D.C., Maryland and Northern Virginia dominated with 9 of the top 25 best home markets. We should also point out

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We recently stumbled upon a list of the best and worst housing markets in the United States for 2011. The rankings were compiled by online real estate marketplace Zillow for the publication Business Week. Although the housing market is still volatile and far from stabilizing, these numbers should provide hope to anyone planning to buy or sell a home in the future.

Consistent with median income rankings and population growth data, the Washington D.C. area and Boston Metro area are big winners in

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