Ulster County or Florida? Moving New Yorkers flocked to both

The takeaways? By and large, most New Yorkers — 90 percent — who relocated stayed within the Empire State. But analyzing where they moved within the state shows interesting trends.

Apparently the Gunks are as appealing as mojitos in Miami Beach. Ulster County saw 329 percent more people move into the county than out of it last year, rivaling sunny Florida in popularity as a moving destination by percentage.

“It was surprising, especially because in 2020 we’ve had a great number of moves and Florida was one of the most popular destinations,” said Vojin Popovic, CEO of Piece of Cake Moving and Storage. “So, seeing in the last year that more people moved to Ulster County on a percentage basis was a surprise for us.”

And while Ulster was popular, other counties in the region — Greene, Dutchess, Orange, Columbia and Sullivan — also saw the highest, triple-digit percentages of new transplants moving in versus locals moving out.

This combined regional pull was so strong that for the first time since the moving company launched in 2017, more New Yorkers moved to the Hudson Valley region than to Long Island. This edge can also be at least partly attributed to the inclusion of Westchester County within the boundaries of Hudson Valley — that county was a magnet for NYC households that moved, attracting the greatest influx of transplants than any other New York county — and to the region having more housing supply than Long Island can offer, Popovic said.

Second home owners: coming and going

The Hudson Valley has a high number of second homeowners, and Popovic said this demographic used their services, too, to relocate temporarily and make the second home their primary.

“People figured out for themselves that they don’t have to essentially be in the city, but they still like to stay close to the city,” he said. “That’s why we’ve seen great growth in number of moves to the Hudson Valley.”

At the same time, there were some urbanites last year that decided rural living was not for them: “A great number of moves went back to the city too.”

And the top city of choice for those moving out of New York City was Jersey City, New Jersey, right across the river from Manhattan. Jersey City beat out Boston, Miami, Washington, D.C. and Chicago for top urban transplant honors.

Elsewhere in the state, the Hamptons remained a popular moving destination for city dwellers leaving NYC for Long Island, with the towns of East Hampton and Southampton making up about 15 percent of the total moves to Long Island despite only comprising 3 percent of Long Island’s total population.

The full Hudson Valley data set includes 11 counties: Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Orange, Dutchess, Ulster, Sullivan, Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer and Albany.