Lancaster, CA is tops when it comes to the number of people putting down stakes versus those pulling them up, but Atlanta, GA is the nation's top go-to town for households moving more than 50 miles, according to two annual U-Haul International, Inc. reports released last week.

U-Haul's "2001 Top 50 Growth Cities," a national migration-trend report reflecting the nation's top growth areas for families who used U-Haul carriers and moved during 2001, says for the second year in a row, Lancaster had the highest percentage of growth, with 29.5 percent more families moving into the area than out. Lancaster had seen a steady climb over the past few years, rising from number nine in 1998 to third place in 1999.

"The report, reflective of growth patterns of the United States during 2001, was compiled based on nationwide trends in cities of all sizes and reflects communities with more than 5,000 families moving in or out of the area," said John Taylor, U-Haul executive vice president."

"Growth cities were then determined by calculating the percentage of inbound moves versus outbound moves for each area," he said.

Since 1945 U-Haul has assisted 150 million moves. The 2001 Top 50 Growth Cities report was compiled from more than 1.7 million U-Haul hauls between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2001.

U-Haul's 2001 Top 10 Growth Cities

Source: U-Haul International, Inc.

Top destinations

U-Haul's "2001 Top 50 Destination Cities," is a national migration trend report of 1.7 million U-Haul movers moving more than 50 miles to any city in the nation, regardless of size. The data is not stated as a percentage of population and is not reflective of overall growth, U-Haul says.

U-Haul's 2001 Top 10 Destination Cities

Source: U-Haul International, Inc.

Published: May 17, 2002

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.