Everyone has an opinion about where people are moving and why — moving-van photos, relocation threads, “up and coming market” headlines. The IRS actually has the receipts. Every year its Statistics of Income division matches individual tax returns filed in consecutive years and publishes exactly which counties gained households, which lost them, and how much reported income moved with them.
We built a free, interactive tool to make that data actually usable: the Migration + Wealth Flow Explorer. Search any state, county, or one of our curated regions — Long Island, NY or the Greater Charlotte region, for example — and see, county by county, who moved in, who moved out, and how much reported adjusted gross income came with them.
Why We Built It
A large share of our buyers are relocating from somewhere else — often the New York metro, sometimes Long Island specifically, headed for Fort Mill, Indian Land, or the rest of the Charlotte region. We wanted a fast, honest way to answer the question every one of those buyers eventually asks: “am I actually part of a real trend, or is this just anecdote?” The Migration Explorer answers that with the IRS’s own numbers instead of a vibe.
What’s in the Data
The current vintage covers 2022–2023, the most recent the IRS has published (posted March 2026), with 54,121 reported county-to-county flows across all 50 states plus D.C. “Households” in this dataset means matched tax returns, not full population — so it undercounts renters and dependents who don’t file independently, and the IRS suppresses very small flows to protect taxpayer privacy. It’s not a census, but it’s the closest thing to ground truth on how many tax-filing households, and how much of their income, moved between any two places in the country.
Try It on Your Own Corridor
Two starting points if you want to see it in action:
- Long Island, NY — see where Long Islanders are actually relocating to, and how that compares to what we’re seeing in Fort Mill and Indian Land.
- Greater Charlotte region — see the full inbound and outbound picture for the metro, county by county.
Every profile page — state, county, or region — has a “Where they moved” and “Where newcomers came from” view, a map, and a ranked table of the counties driving the flow. There’s also a quick guide if you want the details on how to read it and what the numbers do and don’t capture.
It’s free, it’s not gated behind a lead form, and we’ll keep it updated as the IRS publishes new vintages. If you’re weighing a move yourself — into the Charlotte area or anywhere else — reach out and we’re happy to walk through what the data says about your specific corridor.
