Corporate relocations bounced back in a big way last year, as 96 companies announced they were moving to new digs, more than five times the 18 headquarters moves the nation saw in 2023.
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While nearly a third of 2024's relocations were within the same state or metro, those that did change states most often chose Texas as their new home, according to a report from CBRE.
The Lone Star State accounted for almost 50% of the country’s 40 interstate relocations. Texas garnered 26 total relocations. Four were intrastate moves, and three came from international companies setting up shop in the U.S.
Texas’ business-friendly environment and lack of personal and corporate income taxes have long made it a premier destination for corporate relocations, though states like Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina are making a push up the charts.
California saw the most companies move away, with 17 exiting the state to find a new home. Twelve of those moved to Texas.
More than a quarter of corporate relocations last year were international companies setting up new headquarters in the U.S. That international expansion into the U.S. reflected global confidence in the American business environment, according to CBRE.
However, onshoring also likely played a part. Corporations involved in technology and manufacturing were the two industries with the most relocations last year. They accounted for 56 corporate relocations in 2024.
Economics were a big factor in why corporations decided to move. CBRE's research found tax incentives, lower taxes and proximity to key markets were behind 40 relocations.
After averaging 80-plus corporate relocations from 2018 to 2020, the U.S. had a big spike in 2021 when 137 companies moved their headquarters. Total corporate relocations then dropped each of the next two years before rebounding in 2024.
Texas markets have gained the most new headquarters since 2018, with Dallas-Fort Worth accounting for 100 of the more than 560 moves during that time and Austin getting 81. Nashville was the next closest, with 35 corporate relocations since 2018, followed by Phoenix and another Texas metro, Houston, at 31 each.
Companies are on the hunt for workers, according to site selection researcher The Boyd Co., and that is something Texas has in spades. Texas is on track to surpass California as the nation's most populous state by 2045, according to a Realtor.com analysis of its own data and figures from the Census Bureau.
“Texas continues to be a big winner with respect to talent migration,” The Boyd Co. principal John Boyd Jr. said earlier this year.
But the uncertainty around the Trump administration's evolving tariff policy could slow corporate relocations in 2025.
Boston has a pair of huge office projects totaling more than 900K SF that are mostly empty, as the city failed to attract the number of corporate relocations that developers expected.
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