Moving Damage Index

Whether you’ve bought your first home or you’re renting in a different city, moving your items from one house to another can be a stressful process. Not only are there logistical challenges, such as arranging removal services and collecting the keys for access, but there is also the risk of your belongings getting damaged during the move. With housing prices rising around the world, many people are having to move more frequently to take advantage of lower costs wherever possible, increasing the potential risk of moving damage.

Some areas are more prepared for a change in housing than others, though. To find out where moving damage is the biggest issue, the home and contents insurance comparison service iSelect compiled an index of cities in Australia, the US, and the UK, ranking each area by its moving damage anxiety. Each location has been assigned a score between 0 and 100, where higher scores indicate greater preparedness for potential damage during the move. 

Ready to see if your local area made the list? Here’s the full moving damage index.

The best prepared locations for moving house

Each location in our list was scored based on search volume for queries related to moving damage and moving preparedness. Searches about preparedness gave the area a higher score, while searches about damage gave it a lower score. Here are the highest-scoring cities and states by country:

Australia

Topping our list with a perfect 100 score, Toowoomba is Australia’s safest city for moving. For every 100,000 residents, we monitored 389.88 searches about moving preparedness, and almost none for moving damage. Toowoomba wasn’t alone – ten other Australian cities also recorded next to no searches relating to moving damage! Mackay (94.69 out of 100) ranks second with 356.62 preparedness queries per 100,000 people, while Ballarat (87.13 out of 100) places third.

Among Australian states, the Northern Territory ranks first with a total score of 87.71 out of 100. While its 132.38 preparedness searches per 100,000 people are impressive, the fact that the state recorded next to no searches for moving damage once again contributes to its high score on our list. It’s followed by the Australian Capital Territory (80.20 out of 100), which recorded 2.06 damage searches per 100,000 residents, but its score is offset by having the highest volume of moving preparedness searches in the country (152.64 per 100,000). Finally, Western Australia (60.51 out of 100) rounds out the top three, with 0.66 moving damage queries and 97.91 moving preparedness queries per 100,000 residents.

United States

Meanwhile, in the United States, Washington stands out as the most prepared state for moving. Its residents don’t make many searches for moving damage-related issues (1.84 per 100,000), but it has the highest search volume in the country for tools like moving cost calculators and insurance comparisons (123.78 per 100,000). These add up to give it an impressive score of 83.73 out of 100 on our moving damage index.

Colorado ranks second with an overall score of 69.84 out of 100. Although it records a number of moving-related damage searches (2.47 per 100,000, the ninth most in the US), it also records the second-highest number of moving preparedness searches, with 109.72 queries per 100,000 residents. This gives it a narrow lead over Virginia, which finishes in third place with a total score of 69.63 in our index, based on 1.90 damage searches and 100.73 preparedness searches per 100,000 people.

United Kingdom

Now that we’ve covered Australia and the United States, which cities in the United Kingdom are the most prepared for moving-related accidents?

Once again, the three most prepared locations recorded almost no queries for moving damage, but plenty of interest in tools to aid the moving process. Plymouth tops the list with 332.92 searches per 100,000 residents related to moving preparations, earning it a total score of 97.80 out of 100.

Cardiff earns a silver medal, with 320.64 preparedness-related queries per 100,000 people, giving it a total score of 95.80 out of 100 in our moving damage index. Finally, Norwich completes the UK’s podium of top-scorers, thanks to its 276.04 preparation queries per 100,000 residents, which gives it a final score of 88.52.

The locations where moving damage concerns are the highest

We’ve looked at the highest scorers in our moving damage index, but which areas are falling behind when preparing to move? Here are the cities and states in Australia, the US, and the UK that scored the lowest in our data:

Australia

The lowest-ranked Australian city on our index is Geelong, which scores just 26.36 out of 100. Its searches for moving preparations are still relatively high (241.88 per 100,000), but its search interest in moving damage is higher than anywhere else in the country, with 6.37 queries per 100,000 residents.

Wollongong (33.18 out of 100) ranks second-lowest, with 3.11 damage-related searches per 100,000 people compared to 124.26 searches for moving tools from the same sample size. Following closely behind is Adelaide (34.61 out of 100), which has Australia’s third-lowest score. Its 2.13 damage-related searches per 100,000 residents are relatively high, but it’s the city with the second-fewest preparation searches in the country (85.25 per 100,000).

In state rankings, South Australia has the lowest score nationwide (25.89 out of 100). Not only does it have the second-highest number of searches for moving damage (2.63 per 100,000), but it also has the second-lowest searches for moving preparations (72.02 per 100,000).

It is a considerable difference over the second-lowest ranked state, New South Wales (39.95 out of 100), with 1.05 damage searches and 70.17 preparedness searches per 100,000 people. Meanwhile, Queensland’s final score of 40.55 it is in third place, thanks to 79.72 preparation queries compared to 1.59 damage queries per 100,000.

United States

With the highest number of searches for moving damage in the US (5.65 per 100,000), Maine is a hotspot for anxiety around accidents while moving. The state also recorded 56.51 searches for moving preparation tools per 100,000 residents in the same timeframe, ranking ninth-lowest in the country. These combine to give it a shockingly low score of just 10.32 out of 100.

The second-lowest-ranked state is New Mexico (28.09 out of 100). With 57.72 preparation searches per 100,000 people, it holds a narrow margin over Maine in moving readiness, but its 3.72 moving damage searches per 100,000 highlight a safety gap. Meanwhile, Arkansas (29.63 out of 100) places third, despite having a lower preparation search volume than its peers (52.46 per 100,000). Still, with 3.20 searches for moving damage in the same sample size, it ends up with a low overall score on our index.

United Kingdom

Leicester (27.69 out of 100) is the UK city with the lowest score in our index. It has the second-highest search volume for moving damage-related issues in the country (6.90 per 100,000), combined with relatively low web traffic for moving preparation tools (74.17 queries per 100,000).

Glasgow (44.86 out of 100) recorded just 1.73 moving-damage searches per 100,000 residents, but it also had 51.44 queries about moving preparations in the same sample, which is the fourth-fewest in the UK. These combine to make it the second-lowest-ranked city in the country, just ahead of Liverpool (45.48 out of 100).