Study Tracks Cities Where People Are Leaving in Droves

When it comes to certain metro areas, it appears that one could make more money running a moving van business than a mortgage office.

A new study by ABODO of moving patterns in the 50 most-populated metropolitan areas has determined that the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News metro area in Virginia has the largest proportion of people leaving town: 10 percent of the population moved away between 2014 and 2015. Denver ranked second with the greatest one-way traffic out of town, with 9.25 percent of its residents looking for another place to live, while the Virginia capital city of Richmond ranked third with an 8.5 percent departure rate by its residents.

In comparison, a perennially troubled metro like Detroit only saw a 4.68 percent population exodus, according to ABODO. And it seems that residents in Buffalo, N.Y., and Los Angeles really love their homes: both areas had the lowest rates of people moving away at just under 3.5 percent each.