Stuff I’m Reading: Where Do Millennials Really Want to Live?

Melody WarnickPlace love, Placemaking

Everyone wants to figure out where Millennials are going to settle down, and the major theory is that they’re completely enamored of cities. But is that really true? Gizmodo’s Alissa Walker points out that about half of Millenials live in cities, but only 13 percent in downtown neighborhoods. The rest, like Americans in general, have wound up somewhere in a suburb, a small town, or a rural area.

Gizmodo chart--where Millennials live

No worries, says Walker: They can still get their urban vibe on in suburbs that are trying really hard to look like big cities, with dense, mixed-use developments, walkable and bikeable neighborhoods, and good restaurants and bars. Or they can pick door #2: small cities. Places like Milwaukee, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh offer the best of cities, with the added bonus that they’re much more affordable than New York or San Francisco (where a Millennial would have to make $60,000 more than average to afford a mortgage).

Plus, as a Milwaukee Millennial points out, “There is an energy of millennials who are coming together and galvanizing and they want to be the creators. Not to take away from what they are doing in places like Austin and Brooklyn, but do you want to participate in their culture, or do you want to be like San Antonio or Milwaukee and be the creator of the culture? A lot of us want to be the creators—we want to be the ones making the change.”

Read the whole article at Gizmodo.

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