Top 10 Most Expensive US Cities for Moving Services
US cities ranked by PlainMove's modeled moving-cost inputs, using BLS labor data and route-distance estimates.
Research period:
Research question
Across the 50 US cities tracked in PlainMove's route cost database, which places have the highest modeled labor-cost inputs, and how do those inputs differ by region?
Methodology
This ranking is generated live from PlainMove's own city database, sorted by the modeled base hourly moving-labor rate. The rate figures come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program (SOC 53-7062, laborers and material movers); population and geographic reference data come from the U.S. Census Bureau. No figure here is hardcoded, every number reflects the current state of PlainMove's database and updates automatically when the underlying federal data is refreshed.
Cities with no available wage data are excluded from this ranking rather than shown with a placeholder value. See the methodology page for the full list of sources, update cadence, and how the regional cost-of-living adjustment is calculated.
Top 10 Most Expensive US Cities for Moving Services
Live data, refreshed automatically as BLS wage data updates
The ranked top 10
These 10 rows update automatically as PlainMove's underlying data refreshes.
| # | City | State | Base hourly rate | CPI adjustment | Population |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Los Angeles | CA | $21 | 1.2 | 3,898,747 |
| 2 | San Francisco | CA | $21 | 1.2 | 873,965 |
| 3 | San Diego | CA | $21 | 1.2 | 1,386,932 |
| 4 | San Jose | CA | $21 | 1.2 | 1,013,240 |
| 5 | Sacramento | CA | $21 | 1.2 | 524,943 |
| 6 | Seattle | WA | $21 | 1.2 | 749,256 |
| 7 | Portland | OR | $21 | 1.2 | 652,503 |
| 8 | Las Vegas | NV | $21 | 1.2 | 641,903 |
| 9 | Phoenix | AZ | $21 | 1.2 | 1,608,139 |
| 10 | Tucson | AZ | $21 | 1.2 | 542,629 |
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics; U.S. Census Bureau population estimates. Figures update automatically as PlainMove's underlying data refreshes. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics; U.S. Census Bureau population estimates. Figures update automatically as PlainMove's underlying data refreshes.
Findings
Top entity in the ranking
The top-ranked record in this dataset is Los Angeles, with a value of $21 on the Base hourly rate column. The full top-10 set is rendered in the table above. Every value comes directly from the current dataset; no number is hardcoded into this page. When the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes a revision, the ranking and the prose around it update automatically.
Distribution shape
The gap between the top-ranked record ($21) and the 10th-ranked record ($21) characterizes how concentrated the top of the distribution is. Where the top value is many multiples of the median value of the visible set, the population is highly concentrated, a small number of entities accumulate the bulk of the measured quantity. Where the top and bottom of the visible set are close together, the distribution is relatively flat across the top end. The full distribution beyond this top-10 cut is summarized in the aggregate context section below and explored in the linked entity profiles.
Aggregate context
Across the full population behind this ranking, here are the summary statistics: how many records exist in total, the sum of the ranking metric across all qualifying records, and the mean per-record value. The methodology page documents the exact filter applied (records with null or zero values on the ranking metric are excluded). This aggregate row is computed from the same dataset that powers the ranking above.
Source provenance
The wage figures in this ranking come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program; population figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau. PlainMove keeps this data current as new federal releases become available, so the ranking above always reflects the latest figures in our database rather than a fixed snapshot. See the methodology page for the source URLs and update cadence.
Why this ranking matters
Rankings like this one let a reader scan a population quickly and identify outliers, concentrations, and patterns that warrant deeper investigation. The detail pages linked from each entity in the table above give the full per-entity context: time-series history where available, related metrics from adjacent tables, and links onward to the underlying source records. The methodology page explains how an entity earns inclusion in the dataset and how the ranking column is computed at the source.
What this analysis cannot tell us
Base hourly rates reflect PlainMove's documented BLS OES wage and route-distance model, not FMCSA carrier records or quoted mover prices. Actual quotes from individual moving companies can vary substantially with time of year, service tier, distance, and access conditions. This ranking is a planning comparison, not a market-price survey or a quote.
Secondary cut from the same source
Top 10 cities by regional CPI adjustment multiplier
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics - https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Moving Services CPI - https://www.bls.gov/cpi/
- U.S. Census Bureau, population estimates - https://www.census.gov/