By John L. Micek | jm****@******ve.com | January 7, 2026

It’s often said that people vote with their feet. So here’s the Massachusetts corollary: They’re voting with their U-Haul rentals. And some prominent business leaders are sounding the alarm.

For at least the second year in a row, the Bay State saw more people leaving than arriving. That’s based on the rental truck titan’s 2026 Growth Index Report, which saw Massachusetts finishing 46^th in the nation for population growth.

The state logged a 48.2% in-migration rate, based on the annual analysis.

That put it in the company of other northeastern and New England states, such as Connecticut, which finished 42^nd nationwide, with a 49% in-migration rate, and New York, which finished 47^th, with a 48.9% in-migration rate.

And of those who did leave, many didn’t wander far.

Neighboring New Hampshire, long a destination for Bay Staters seeking more tax-friendly climes, finished 32^nd on the U-Haul growth index. Ditto for Vermont (24^th), Maine (15^th, with a 50.9% in-migration rate) and Rhode Island (40^th).

The data reinforces the fact that the Bay State, which consistently ranks among the most expensive states to live in, is pricing out too many of its current and potential residents, Paul Craney, the executive director of the business-friendly Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, said.

And that matters because big companies look at such factors as the tax burden, the education of the population and a state’s economic competitiveness when they decide to move to a state.

The nonprofit Tax Foundation, for instance, has ranked the state 43^rd nationwide for the competitiveness of its tax structure.

“For years, state leaders have dismissed out-migration as anecdotal or temporary. This data tells a very different story,” Craney argued.

“When people are voting with their feet year after year, it’s not because of the weather. It’s because Massachusetts has become too expensive, too rigid, and too hostile to growth,” he continued. “Instead of our State House leaders changing course, they would rather ignore the results of their policies and expect a different result.”

Republican lawmakers from New Hampshire, abetted by Craney’s group, engaged in a bit of cross-border trolling in December, as they participated in a pair of press conferences highlighting what they described as the growing “competitiveness gap” between the two states.

“We will continue to put out policies that attract job growth, wealth and prosperity,” Granite State Rep. Brian Labrie, who chairs his chamber’s Small Business Coalition, said. “Being number one in the country, or in the top five, requires us to be laser-focused [on] competing with the most competitive states in the nation.”

Indeed, the fastest-growing metro areas were in the Sun Belt, with Dallas, Houston and Austin, Texas, taking the top three honors in the U-Haul analysis. Charlotte, North Carolina, Phoenix, Arizona, and Nashville, Tennessee, all well below the Mason-Dixon Line, rounded out the top six fastest-growing Metro areas.

The fastest-growing cities were also hundreds of miles from Boston, with Ocala and Northport, Florida, along with Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, as the top three destinations for movers.

The challenge for policymakers on Beacon Hill and Boston City Hall is real.

As many as 1 in 3 Massachusetts voters said they were considering leaving the state, or knew someone who was.

That’s according to a December 2025 poll by the Massachusetts Opportunity Alliance, which represents a constellation of business interests across the commonwealth.

That pain was felt the most acutely among the state’s youngest residents, with more than half of all respondents (53%) aged 18 to 34 telling pollsters that they’re thinking about leaving or know someone who’s feeling the same way.

That’s a warning shot for the state’s technology and science economies, which long have been built on the backs of college students who decide to stay once they get their degrees.

And it’s probably no surprise that urban-dwellers are getting happy feet, with 46% telling pollsters that they, or someone they know, are considering moving out. Boston, for instance, ranks among the most expensive cities on the planet to call home.

The U-Haul analysis is a clear sign we are losing competitive ground compared with states like Texas, Florida and others attracting more residents,” Christopher R. Anderson, the president of the Massachusetts High Technology Council, who’s one of the organizers of the alliance, said.

“Restoring our state’s competitive edge must be a priority. Two MOA-inspired ballot initiatives to cut the income tax and trigger more tax returns are commonsense reforms that will keep more money in people’s pockets and help reverse this trend,” he said.

That’s a reference to the alliance-backed ballot questions that recently cleared a critical procedural hurdle and could go before the voters in the November general election.

The proposals face deep legislative resistance, which could complicate their path to implementation — even if voters do eventually approve them.

Democratic Gov. Maura Healey, who’s up for reelection this year, has consistently touted her efforts to make the state more affordable, pointing to a $1 billion tax relief bill and a more than $5 billion bond bill aimed at easing the state’s housing crisis.

Healey has tried to rebut the competitiveness argument, pointing to decisions by toymakers LEGO and Hasbro to move to Massachusetts.

“We are thrilled that Hasbro has chosen Massachusetts as the home of its new headquarters, and we’re ready to support the hundreds of jobs they will create here,” Healey said in a September statement announcing the move.

It’s a sure bet, however, that whichever candidate emerges from the three-way Republican gubernatorial primary will seize not only on the U-Haul data — but any other statistical cannon fodder they can find — to argue Healey isn’t getting the job done.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu also made tackling her city’s housing crisis one of the main rallying cries as she started her second term earlier this week.

“For our city to flourish, Bostonians must be able to grow up and grow old here,” Wu said, as she delivered her inaugural address before a packed house at Symphony Hall on Monday. “We will work to address the housing needs of our families and seniors, focusing on solutions they want and can afford,” she said.

“Over the next four years, we will continue inventing new ways to use public planning, public finance and public land to create the homes our residents need, because we know that housing is a public good,” she continued.

Whether that’s enough to convince city homeowners, who found a 13% tax hike in their stockings, is another matter entirely. Wu’s efforts to ease that burden by shifting a greater share onto commercial property owners were scuttled on Beacon Hill.

Speaking to reporters after her speech, Wu acknowledged that sticker shock for homeowners, saying she’d received “lots of messages already this month.”

“We’re in a moment in our economy that residents, the lifeblood of our city, cannot be the ones bearing all of the burden of shifts that are beyond Boston alone,” the Democratic mayor said.

“There’s solutions that need state sign off and state legislative action,” she continued. “We will continue pushing for those and we’ll continue using every other lever that’s under city control as well.”

Craney, whose group opposed Wu’s proposed tax shift, was at least onside with the notion that the Legislature and Healey need to act to ease the exodus.

“Beacon Hill keeps doubling down on policies that raise the cost of living and doing business, then acts surprised when people leave. Gov. Maura Healey, Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka need to change course,” he argued.

“Until the governor and lawmakers confront the consequences of their own decisions, Massachusetts will continue to fall behind states that actually compete for residents and jobs,” Craney added.