Drew Dixon
Suburbs have often been a draw for those looking for a comfortable work life without inner-city troubles. And Florida has three of the top 10 suburbs to move to when it comes to being job magnets, according to a new study.
The analysis was conducted by moveBuddha, a moving industry advisory website. The report looked at 526 U.S. cities based upon internet searches for moving services to find the suburbs with the hottest job markets.
The “Booming Burbs” study spanned January 2024 through October and found Florida is looking good. Winter Garden, Davenport and Clermont — all Central Florida communities — finished among the top 10 suburbs in the nation where job markets are cooking. Winter Garden finished fourth in the country, followed by Davenport at fifth and Clermont at eighth.
Winter Garden had a move-in ratio of 2.45 people moving into the suburb for every one person who moved out of the community. Median home values as of September 2024 were $380,203, and Winter Garden had a 1.6% job growth rate from August 2023 to August 2024.
The top job-market suburb in the country was Summerville, South Carolina, followed by Conway, another South Carolina suburb.
America’s Sun Belt states dominated the top 10 list.
“Eight of the ten most popular suburbs fall within just three states: North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida,” the moveBuddha study found. The third-place spot went to Hollywood, California, the only suburb not located in the Sun Belt.
Of the top 43 American suburbs listed, 11 were from Florida. In the top 20 alone, there were a total of six suburbs from Florida, including St. Augustine at 12th, Zephyrhills at 14th and Leesburg at 16th.
