Millennials Remade Cities, But Will They Keep Living in Them?

Officials in several cities transformed by
young adults try to predict their next move.

Mike Maciag
Governing Magazine
July, 2015

For years, millennials have been hailed as fundamentally different from prior American generations in their attitudes toward cities. As large numbers of them have gravitated toward urban centers, local governments and private developers have responded, providing new housing, transit and other amenities aimed at luring them in.

In the past, starting families was the tipping point that led young adults to relocate to the suburbs. Now, as millions of millennials — generally defined as those born between 1982 and 2004 — reach this stage in their lives, recent commentary has called into question just how urban they truly are. As a matter of absolute numbers, more of America’s roughly 75 million millennials live in suburbs than in central cities.

What is clear is that millennials have delayed marriage and child-bearing longer than their parents. Large numbers have lived in cities for prolonged periods of time and may be more rooted to their communities and less willing to decamp for suburbia. Some of those wanting to stay put, however, may struggle to do so once they start families, as many cities simply don’t possess an adequate supply of affordable housing for families.

To gauge where this generation might be settling, Governing interviewed demographers and local officials in a few of the hottest millennial markets for an update on what’s happening on the ground.

Read more here.