MELBOURNE, Fla — Palm Bay-Melbourne has taken the No. 1 spot in U-Haul’s list of Top Growing Cities.
What You Need To Know
- Palm Bay-Melbourne was named Nol 1 in U-Haul’s list of Top Growing Cities
- Other Florida cities and metropolitan areas like Ocala, Sarasota-Bradenton and Kissimmee-St. Cloud made the list
- Ocala held the No. 1 spot last year, but was dethroned by the Palm Bay-Melbourne market this year
- The U-Haul company attributes growth in this area to the ever growing space-industry
Florida cities and metropolitan areas like Ocala, Sarasota-Bradenton, Kissimmee-St.Cloud and Panama City-Panama City Beach dominated the list, earning 2nd, 4th, 11th and 12th place respectively.
Palm Bay-Melbourne market’s sum equaled up to 54.7% of all one-way U-Haul traffic in arrivals compared to just 45.3% departures in 2023, according to the report.
U-Haul credits growth in this area as a result of Space Coast Companies investing and creating new jobs.
“The Space Coast has many companies investing in this region and creating jobs such as Embraer, SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and L3Harris Technologies.” U-Haul Company of Eastern Florida president Cal Conner said. “We have a low cost of living compared to many of the northern cities people have left. Add to that our fantastic year-round climate, and you can see why Palm Bay-Melbourne is such a desirable area to live.”
U-Haul said it measured city growth by calculating net gain/ loss of one-way equipment from customer transactions in 2023. Last year, more than 2.5 million one-way transactions with U-Haul equipment were recorded overall.
