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Millennials Make the Move to Smaller Cities
New York is out. (Way out.) So are Los Angeles and Chicago.
Houston, Denver, Dallas and Sea-Tac (Seattle and Tacoma) — even Columbus (Ohio) and Riverside (California) — are the new magnets for millennials.
People between the ages of 25 and 34 are eschewing larger, expensive metropolises for smaller cities that offer more affordable housing and a lower other cost of living, according to a recent Brookings Institution evaluation of the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey Five-Year Estimates.
This internal migration is changing the map as the United States grows, settles and prospers, Brookings said.
"Millennials, a highly educated and diverse generation now squarely in their late 20s and 30s, are forming the backbone of various regions' emerging labor forces and consumer bases," wrote Brookings' demography expert William Frey.
Brookings measured the movements of millennials and baby boomers — Americans 55 and older — from 2004 to 2017, with special attention paid to the Great Recession in 2007-2008, when the economy sank after a national banking and credit crisis. Jobs were hard to come by, especially for millennials entering the market with little experience. Carrying a large amount of student debt and few work options strangled their ability to marry, have children and buy homes.
"Young adults are still far from reaching their earlier mobility levels, despite occasional upticks in recent years," wrote Frey. "For them, the impact of the recession in terms of delayed marriage, home buying and childbearing appears to continue — even as the economy has heated up."
Top choices
Which cities took on a new appeal for millennials?
Houston, Dallas, Seattle-Tacoma, Austin, Charlotte, Portland (Oregon), Riverside, Phoenix, Nashville, Atlanta, Columbus, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Sacramento and Raleigh, in descending order. San Francisco came in 17th, while Sunnyvale (in California's Silicon Valley region) ranked 29th in increased millennial population.
The biggest losers were New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Diego, Miami, Boston, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Milwaukee, Washington (D.C.), Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Tucson, Rochester (New York), Cleveland, Hartford, Baltimore, St. Louis and Louisville.
Among states, Texas gained an average 32,318 millennials a year between 2012 and 2017. Washington state gained 18,174; Colorado, 16,156; Oregon 7,542; and Arizona, 5,742.
New York lost 37,217 young people per year during the same period, with Illinois seeing 17,884 millennials move out. New Jersey lost 7,100; Massachusetts, 6,353; Alaska, 6,038; Pennsylvania, 5,210; and Washington, 4,092. California lost 2,325 millennials.
Living expenses
The cost of rent — another measure of migration movement — increased from January 2018 to January 2019 in destination cities, and stalled in some cities that lost millennial population. Las Vegas showed the largest average rent increase of $80 per month; but, at an average rent of $1,048, Sin City remains affordable for millennials, according to RentCafe, a nationwide apartment search website.
Phoenix, another southwest growth city attracting people from more expensive West Coast states, saw a $72 per month rent increase. Again, the average rent is a manageable $1,018, RentCafe reports.
San Diego (up 6.4 percent), Nashville (up 6.2 percent), and Los Angeles (up 6 percent) were among the largest cities with the fastest increases in average rents, RentCafe reported. Nashville's average rent of $1,347, however, came in far lower than the average of $2,460 in Los Angeles and $2,184 in San Diego.
Queens, New York, was the only large city where rent fell since last January, by 0.2 percent to $2,196. Houston grew only 0.8 percent, and the East Coast cities of Boston and Baltimore both saw meager 1.1 percent increases in average rent since January 2018.
So, how much income does a millennial need to afford rent in some of these cities?
According to SmartAsset, a financial technology company, renters need about $123,000 a year to live in some of California's larger cities; $163,000 in New York City; $108,000 in Washington, $50,400 in Charlotte, and $39,300 in Columbus, Ohio.
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Trump administration opens antisemitism inquiries at 5 colleges, including Columbia and Berkeley
The Trump administration is opening new investigations into allegations of antisemitism at five U.S. universities including Columbia and the University of California, Berkeley, the Education Department announced Monday.
It's part of President Donald Trump's promise to take a tougher stance against campus antisemitism and deal out harsher penalties than the Biden administration, which settled a flurry of cases with universities in its final weeks. It comes the same day the Justice Department announced a new task force to root out antisemitism on college campuses.
In an order signed last week, Trump called for aggressive action to fight anti-Jewish bias on campuses, including the deportation of foreign students who have participated in pro-Palestinian protests.
Along with Columbia and Berkeley, the department is now investigating the University of Minnesota, Northwestern University and Portland State University. The cases were opened using the department's power to launch its own civil rights reviews, unlike the majority of investigations, which stem from complaints.
Messages seeking comment were left with all five universities.
A statement from the Education Department criticized colleges for tolerating antisemitism after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and a wave of pro-Palestinian protests that followed. It also criticized the Biden administration for negotiating "toothless" resolutions that failed to hold schools accountable.
"Today, the Department is putting universities, colleges, and K-12 schools on notice: this administration will not tolerate continued institutional indifference to the wellbeing of Jewish students on American campuses," said Craig Trainor, the agency's acting assistant secretary for civil rights.
The department didn't provide details about the inquiries or how it decided which schools are being targeted. Presidents of Columbia and Northwestern were among those called to testify on Capitol Hill last year as Republicans sought accountability for allegations of antisemitism. The hearings contributed to the resignation of multiple university presidents, including Columbia's Minouche Shafik.
An October report from House Republicans accused Columbia of failing to punish pro-Palestinian students who took over a campus building, and it called Northwestern's negotiations with student protesters a "stunning capitulation."
House Republicans applauded the new investigations. Representative Tim Walberg, chair of the Education and Workforce Committee, said he was "glad that we finally have an administration who is taking action to protect Jewish students."
Trump's order also calls for a full review of antisemitism complaints filed with the Education Department since Oct. 7, 2023, including pending and resolved cases from the Biden administration. It encourages the Justice Department to take action to enforce civil rights laws.
Last week's order drew backlash from civil rights groups who said it violated First Amendment rights that protect political speech.
The new task force announced Monday includes the Justice and Education departments along with Health and Human Services.
"The Department takes seriously our responsibility to eradicate this hatred wherever it is found," said Leo Terrell, assistant attorney general for civil rights. "The Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism is the first step in giving life to President Trump's renewed commitment to ending anti-Semitism in our schools."
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