ON THE MOVE

San Antonio ranks No. 3 among top moving destinations in the U.S.

More people are moving to San Antonio than almost anywhere else in the U.S.

San Antonio is holding its ground as one of the top moving destinations in the U.S. For the second year in a row, Penske Truck Rental has named Alamo City the No. 3 spot for migration, a pattern the company says is increasingly driven by lifestyle and values, rather than career opportunities.

The annual rankings, based on one-way consumer truck rental reservations, were released with Penske’s “Settling In: Consumer Moving Trends Survey,” a snapshot of why people in the U.S. are willing to break their backs for new horizons. 41 percent of respondents said they were seeking a fresh start.

32 percent were also motivated by affordability. That’s a mixed bag for San Antonio. Despite consistently ranking as one of the least expensive cities for homeowners, renters, and parents, opportunity hasn’t caught up with the population boom. According to the most recent U.S. census, the Alamo City has the third-highest poverty rate among the top 25 largest U.S. metros.

Still, the economy barely registered with the youngest survey respondents. The 45 percent of Gen Z respondents who have moved in the past five years said it was important that their new hometowns be vibrant, active, and diverse. The majority of Zoomers — 65 percent — said it was “extremely” or “very important” that their city align with personal values.

Older survey takers, meanwhile, prioritized proximity to family and a slower pace of living. 60 percent of Boomers and older generations say they are lured by quiet communities.

Across all ages, social media is increasingly shaping prospective movers’ perceptions of U.S. metros, with fifty-six percent of respondents saying they were influenced by posts. Whether San Antonio comes off as appealing largely depends on algorithms, with scrollers just as likely to stumble upon a post-Spurs win brawl as a poolside fantasy.

Overall, Texas dominated the list with four cities in the top 10, including five-year No. 1 Houston. Penske’s complete top U.S. moving destinations are as follows, with last year’s placement in parentheses.

No. 1 — Houston, TX (1)
No. 2 — Atlanta, GA (2)
No. 3 — San Antonio, TX (3)
No. 4 — Charlotte, NC (6)
No. 5 — Las Vegas, NV (7)
No. 6 — Orlando, FL (5)
No. 7 — Austin, TX (9)
No. 8 — Dallas, TX (4)
No. 9 — Phoenix, AZ (Unranked)
No. 10 — Tampa, FL (10)

moving population trends economy affordability rankings

River Restoration

New film tracks the Guadalupe's long road back from the July 4 floods

Hill Country Alliance Guadalupe River landowner workshop

Photo courtesy of the Hill Country Alliance

The Hill Country Alliance is one of the organizations featured in the film. Here, it hosts a workshop for landowners to learn how to plant new vegetation.

As Texas approaches the one-year mark after the destructive July 4 floods in 2025, the disaster has moved into a new phase of remembering and restructuring. A new documentary called Hope for the Guadalupe combines the two, collecting perspectives from the people who lived it and looking at the work Texans are doing now to revitalize the land.

The film will debut in a series of screenings that start in Austin at the 11th Annual Water, Texas Film Festival on May 12 and continue throughout Texas, including San Antonio. After the community screenings, it will be picked up by Alamo Drafthouse for more showings from May 31 through June 2. These theater showings will be part of a double feature with another, more general conservation documentary called Deep In The Heart: A Texas Wildlife Story. Tickets are on sale now.

Other screenings with post-film Q&As will take place in the following cities:

Kerrville – Thursday, May 14 | Arcadia Live Theatre
San Antonio – Friday, May 15 | San Antonio Botanical Garden
Dallas – Tuesday, May 19 | Angelika Film Center & Café
Houston – Thursday, May 21 | River Oaks Theatre
Wimberley — Sunday, May 31 | 7A Ranch Opera House

The flooding is still primarily referred to by date only. It mostly affected the Guadalupe River, which runs through New Braunfels and separates San Antonio and Austin. During the worst of the flash flooding, the Guadalupe rose more than 37 feet in just hours, a press release about the film recounts. It shares an estimate that 52 percent of riparian vegetation — basically, the plants that create a buffer between land and river — was lost in Kerr County.

Director Ben Masters and producer Josh Winkler gathered their findings by talking to various community members and organizations about the ecology of the region and what they're doing about it now. According to the release, that means hearing from biologists, landowners, and conservationists doing things like planting native species and looking at the area's longterm needs.

The organizations looking after these longterm needs are now part of a coalition supported by the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country. Some of the individual organizations include the Hill Country Alliance, San Antonio Botanical Garden, Kerr County River Foundation, and the Hunt Preservation Society. The film will show some of their projects in progress.

“The goal was to tell this story with honesty and respect for the people and the place,” said Ben Masters, director of Hope for the Guadalupe. “What we saw was not just devastation, but a community coming together to restore something deeply meaningful. That’s what this film is about.”

The Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country is one of several supporters of the film. The Community Foundation is also supporting fundraising efforts through its Hope for the Guadalupe Fund, which supports long-term river restoration, planting of native trees, seeds, and grasses, and stewardship efforts across the region. Many of those efforts are spotlighted in the film.

“The Guadalupe River is one of Texas’ great natural and cultural resources,” said Community Foundation of the Hill Country CEO Austin Dickson in the release. “This film documents both the devastating impact of the floods and the extraordinary work underway to restore the river corridor and surrounding communities. Long-term recovery means caring for the land, the watershed and the people who depend on them for generations to come.”

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