Top Markets Attracting Millennial Renters from Other States
The top metros attracting Millennial renters from other states are typically medium-sized with relatively fast-growing economies.
Markets for Millennials Moving from Other States
As covered in our recent research, young adult renters are moving at decreasing rates. Among the potential reasons are geographically uneven access to better employment opportunities and low long-term job security.
In this blog, we dig deeper into metro-level changes to the share of Millennial renters (defined as those born between 1982 and 1996, according to Pew Research Center classifications) moving from other states. We compare these trends against annual GDP growth as an overall indicator of employment growth and housing demand.
In small asset multifamily, metros that experienced increasing shares of Millennial renters from other states were mainly medium-sized markets. These metros typically had lower rent levels, as discussed in previous blog posts.
Medium-sized cities attracting Millennials included Pittsburg, San Antonio, Milwaukee, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Hartford, Nashville and Oklahoma City, as shown below. The markets experienced 1.5 to 4.0 percentage points share increases. This is compared to a slight decline nationally¹.
Small properties in Minneapolis, San Diego and Denver, which are larger metros, also increased their shares of Millennials.
Many of the cities that saw strong Millennial in-migration also had the fastest-growing metro economies in 2017. San Antonio, Nashville, Pittsburg, Denver, Las Vegas, and Salt Lake City had annual GDP growth well above the national average of 2.1%, as shown below.
Moving Trends in Large Multifamily Properties
Downtown-oriented large apartment buildings also attract Millennials. Large asset multifamily is typically closer to job centers than the more spread out smaller apartment properties.
Top markets for Millennial renters moving into large apartment buildings from out of state included Pittsburg, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Portland, as shown below. These markets also had some of the highest GDP growth.
These overall growth trends provide valuable context and initial clues for further investigation. For example, while metros like San Jose, Austin, and San Francisco have strong economic growth, they don’t seem to attract younger renters because of high housing costs.
In future blogs, we will look at other housing demand factors such as jobs, labor market and wage growth, and housing costs. We’ll also discuss the circumstances affecting the moving decisions of young renters.
1 All data is sourced from the American Community Survey (ACS), unless otherwise stated. ACS statistics are sample-based estimates of the compositional profile of the total population in the given year of data collection, and include a margin of error.