Divorce. Having a baby. Getting married. Studies show that none of these are as stressful as moving home.
Psychoanalyst Ronnie Greenberg calls the home “a matrix of safety.” A roof over your head, a familiar space, a payment structure that you understand (even if it’s a struggle). No matter how much you detest your apartment or how much you love your new place, moving is still a leap into the unknown. If that move also involves buying, you can add a massive financial commitment to the mix of feelings you’re going through.
But a new home is also about your environment and the people with whom you complete the process. That means that home-buying is more stressful in some locations than others. For our new study, HouseFresh used the TensiStrength tool to assess the stress levels of property-themed tweets from every city in the U.S.
Here’s a look at the most stressful city to move house in every state. The percentage indicates the proportion of move-related tweets that showed symptoms of stress.
Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.
Methodology
We built a list of terms related to moving houses and pulled tweets including these terms, using the Twitter API. We used the location of users to identify the city, state and country, and excluded areas outside of the US. We then used the language analysis tool TensiStrength to classify whether a tweet was stressed or not.
The terms we used were:
- Moving house, moved house, house offer, estate agents, house sale, house bid, house negotiation, first-time buyer, house contract, property lawyer, property solicitor, buying house, bought house, relocating, relocated, house budget, moving.
We calculated the proportion of stressed tweets for every city and state to create an overall ranking, and reveal the top 10 most and least stressful. We omitted Wyoming from the ‘most stressful city in each state’ results as no city had enough data to extrapolate.
The data was collected in July/August/September 2021.
Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.
50. South Dakota
Number of Stressed Tweets: 19.2%
Image Credit: RiverNorthPhotography.
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Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.
49. Florida
Number of Stressed Tweets: 26.5%
Image Credit: Elisa.rolle.
48. Indiana
Number of Stressed Tweets: 28%
Image Credit: f11photo.
47. Iowa
Number of Stressed Tweets: 29.1%
Image Credit: JoeChristensen.
46. North Dakota
Number of Stressed Tweets: 29.1%
Image Credit: sequential5.
45. Delaware
Number of Stressed Tweets: 29.4%
Image Credit: mdgmorris.
44. South Carolina
Number of Stressed Tweets: 30.8%
Image Credit: SeanPavonePhoto.
43. Wyoming
Number of Stressed Tweets: 31.2%
Image Credit: AnujSahaiPhotography.
42. Maryland
Number of Stressed Tweets: 31.4%
Image Credit: James_Lane.
41. New Hampshire
Number of Stressed Tweets: 31.5%
Image Credit: DenisTangneyJr.
40. California
Number of Stressed Tweets: 31.6%
Image Credit: mlauffen.
39. Alabama
Number of Stressed Tweets: 31.8%
Image Credit: James Deitsch.
38. Montana
Number of Stressed Tweets: 31.8%
Image Credit: YinYang.
37. Kansas
Number of Stressed Tweets: 32.2%
Image Credit: Michael Pham.
36. Nebraska
Number of Stressed Tweets: 32.3%
Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.
35. Virginia
Number of Stressed Tweets: 33%
Image Credit: ABEMOS / istockphoto.
34. Connecticut
Number of Stressed Tweets: 33%
Image Credit: DenisTangneyJr.
33. Nevada
Number of Stressed Tweets: 33.2%
Image Credit: AlizadaStudios.
32. Utah
Number of Stressed Tweets: 33.2%
Image Credit: AndreyKrav.
31. Texas
Number of Stressed Tweets: 33.3%
Image Credit: DenisTangneyJr.
30. New Jersey
Number of Stressed Tweets: 33.4%
Image Credit: aimintang.
29. Georgia
Number of Stressed Tweets: 33.8%
Image Credit: SeanPavonePhoto.
28. North Carolina
Number of Stressed Tweets: 34%
Image Credit: ” Darwin Brandis”.
27. Arkansas
Number of Stressed Tweets: 34%
Image Credit: Rdlamkin.
26. Kentucky
Number of Stressed Tweets: 34.1%
Image Credit: Thomas Kelley.
25. Ohio
Number of Stressed Tweets: 34.4%
Image Credit: dypics.
24. Colorado
Number of Stressed Tweets: 34.4%
Image Credit: Jacob Boomsma / istockphoto.
23. Wisconsin
Number of Stressed Tweets: 34.5%
Image Credit: FierceAbin.
22. Massachusetts
Number of Stressed Tweets: 34.8%
Image Credit: Rolf_52.
21. Michigan
Number of Stressed Tweets: 34.8%
Image Credit: haveseen.
20. Arizona
Number of Stressed Tweets: 34.8%
Image Credit: wanderluster.
19. Minnesota
Number of Stressed Tweets: 35.1%
Image Credit: JoeChristensen.
18. Tennessee
Number of Stressed Tweets: 35.8%
Image Credit: Swarmcatcher.
17. Illinois
Number of Stressed Tweets: 36.3%
Image Credit: ibsky.
16. Rhode Island
Number of Stressed Tweets: 36.3%
Image Credit: danlogan.
15. Alaska
Number of Stressed Tweets: 36.3%
Image Credit: Chilkoot.
14. Pennsylvania
Number of Stressed Tweets: 36.9%
Image Credit: AppalachianViews.
13. West Virginia
Number of Stressed Tweets: 37.6%
Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.
12. New Mexico
Number of Stressed Tweets: 37.9%
Image Credit: Davel5957.
11. Idaho
Number of Stressed Tweets: 38%
Image Credit: knowlesgallery.
10. Oklahoma
Number of Stressed Tweets: 38.1%
Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.
9. Vermont
Number of Stressed Tweets: 38.9%
Image Credit: DenisTangneyJr.
8. Missouri
Number of Stressed Tweets: 39.2%
Image Credit: eyecrave.
7. New York
Number of Stressed Tweets: 39.4%
Image Credit: Boogich.
6. Oregon
Number of Stressed Tweets: 40.3%
Image Credit: HaizhanZheng.
5. Hawaii
Number of Stressed Tweets: 40.7%
Image Credit: Art Wager.
4. Louisiana
Number of Stressed Tweets: 41.4%
Image Credit: DenisTangneyJr.
3. Maine
Number of Stressed Tweets: 41.7%
Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.
2. Mississippi
Number of Stressed Tweets: 42.7%
Image Credit: stevegeer.
1. Washington
Number of Stressed Tweets: 42.8%
Image Credit: 4nadia.
How not to stress while moving
Tweeting about your home-moving stress might not be the healthiest solution. Instead of your phone screen, try to get out of the house. Go for a walk in the park. Meet a friend who’ll listen to your worries. Ride your bike or take a swim. It’ll keep your body game-fit for moving and it might just bust that stress.
Like other stressful life changes such as divorce and child-rearing, your ultimate goal is happiness. And the good news is that the right move can do wonders for your mental health once you’ve settled.
Unfortunately, more than half of us rate the stress of moving as an eight or more out of 10. And 39% of first-time buyers say the stress of buying made them feel ill. So it’s essential to take deliberate steps to safeguard your mental health as soon as you begin the new home process.
For more tips on moving and to find out data about the most stressed cities in the U.S., click here.
Related:
- States where homeowners are slammed with the highest property taxes
- Understanding the basics of real estate options
This article
originally appeared on HouseFresh.com and was
syndicated by MediaFeed.org.
Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.
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