The Residential Mobility indicator is the percentage of the population living in the same house as the previous year. Higher proportions are better because of the positive effect on neighborhood health.

A low percentage of residents remaining in the same home from year to year is a proxy for multiple, disruptive moves. Disruptive or multiple moves can affect health due to the stress related to moving. Stress can be from reactive moves and/or weakened social supports. These factors affect individual mental and physical health. Frequent household moves are linked to childhood abuse, neglect, household dysfunction, and increased likelihood of smoking and childhood suicide. Children in families that move often may have to repeat grades, and are be more likely to be suspended from school or have emotional and behavioral problems. Childhood residential instability increases lifetime risk of depression. Frequent housing turnover may also reflect negative housing conditions, or contribute to them. Although high residential instability is usually a sign of distress, some neighborhoods have high residential mobility because of less concerning reasons. For example, many college students move between school years in the University of Minnesota neighborhood. Residential Mobility is in the Social Cohesion domain.