Map Shows Cities Where Gen Z and Millennials Are Moving To - Newsweek

Gen Zers and millennials are leaving some of the nation’s biggest, most expensive coastal cities for cheaper metros in the South as the cost of living continues rising, according to a new analysis by Redfin. But the two generations are often heading to very different parts of the region.

Millennials, now between 30 and 45 years old, are heading to places like Houston, Las Vegas and Atlanta, where they can afford to buy bigger homes for less than they would in metropolises like New York and Los Angeles.

Older Gen Zers, now in their 20s, are moving to cities with thriving job markets like San Antonio, Austin and Nashville, where there are plenty of job opportunities for young people and lively social scenes. Another popular destination is not in the South at all: Washington, D.C., was the second-most popular city for Gen Zers to migrate to.

This split reflects the different life stages these two generations are at in this moment, even as they both face the same challenges posed by the rising cost of homeownership and an unstable labor market.

"Gen Zers are chasing opportunity, while millennials are chasing space," Sheharyar Bokhari, a principal economist at Redfin, said in a statement. "Younger adults are gravitating toward cities where they can launch careers and their social lives, while millennials are more focused on places where a paycheck stretches further and buying a home is attainable."

Redfin’s analysis was based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) 1-year microdata for 2014, 2019 and 2024, and includes adults (19+) only. The youngest Gen Zers are 14.

San Antonio is the most popular destination for Gen Zers, with 10,678 more Gen Zers moving into the metro than moving out, according to Redfin. Washington, D.C., was the second-most popular destination with a net inflow of 8,631, followed by Austin with a net inflow of 8,590.

Two other Southern destinations rounded out the top five, including Nashville (8,093) and Dallas (6,944).

These five cities—four of which are in the South and one in the Northeast—have one key factor in common: they are great career-launching platforms for young graduates, offering entry-level job opportunities that have been increasingly disappearing across the country.

Entry-level job postings are down roughly 35 percent since early 2023, according to Revelio Labs data, and the unemployment rate for recent grads is hovering around 5.7 percent, according to the Federal Reserve of New York, much higher than the national unemployment rate for all workers, at 4.1 percent.

A weaker job market is leading young people to move less, Bokhari told Newsweek. "When entry-level hiring is tight, fewer young workers can afford to relocate on speculation, and those who do move go to metros with the deepest job markets for early-career workers, like D.C., Austin and Nashville," he said.

The share of 19- to 24-year-olds who left their metro area fell from 15.3 percent in 2014 to 13.5 percent in 2024.

So Gen Zers are reaching something of a compromise: moving where they can find good jobs, but housing costs and the cost of living are still somewhat affordable.

"Early in your career, landing a job and building a network matters more than saving a few hundred dollars a month on rent. But Gen Zers aren’t paying a premium for opportunity—their top destination is San Antonio, and three of their five biggest gains are in Texas," Bokhari said. "They’re choosing places that offer jobs and a social scene at a price they can manage."

In San Antonio, healthcare is a major sector, with opportunities in hospitals, healthcare administration, nursing, and health-related businesses, and cybersecurity is an established industry.

While housing costs can be high in Washington, D.C., the city is great for political science, international relations, economics, law, public policy, communications, and consulting graduates looking for work in their respective fields.

Austin combines opportunities in tech and healthcare, among other sectors, while offering a thriving cultural scene which is unparalleled in other cities where housing is relatively cheap. According to Redfin, the median sale price of a home in the city was $549,636 in August, higher than the national median of $398,596 but much lower than that of a city like Los Angeles ($1.05 million) or San Francisco ($1.6 million).

Nashville has more than a great music scene to offer, with jobs in a number of industries ranging from marketing to tech. Dallas—Fort Worth has a particularly broad corporate base, which serves a major employment sector.

Houston is the most popular destination for millennials, with 16,365 more millennials moving into the metro than leaving. Next came Dallas and Baltimore with a net inflow of 13,072 and 11,724 respectively. They were followed by Las Vegas (8,860) and Atlanta (8,753).

Millennials’ top destinations are more geographically varied than Gen Zers', stretching across the South, West and Northeast. Yet all five cities have one thing in common: median home-sale prices of less than $450,000.

"The same city that works for a 25-year-old renter doesn't work for a 35-year-old trying to buy," Bokhari said.

Homeownership is likely more important for millennials, at this point, than for Gen Zers. According to the National Association of Realtors’ latest generational report, millennials represented 26 percent of all buyers in the market, against 4 percent of Gen Zers. Both generations were completely eclipsed by boomers, who represented 42 percent of buyers. Gen Xers equaled a 25 percent share of total buyers.

Many millennials are now at the stage of life when they want to build a family or expand it, and they are looking for places where they can find employment as well as big enough housing that generally costs less than cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York.

While the two generations are choosing different destinations, both Gen Zers and millennials are most commonly leaving the same cities: Los Angeles and New York.

New York is losing more Gen Zers than any other metro, for a net outflow of 29,554. It is followed by Minneapolis (-17,815), Los Angeles (-16,465), Denver (-13,882) and Detroit (-11,696).

Similarly, millennials are leaving New York at a faster rate than any other metro area, with a net outflow of 42,698. Next come Los Angeles (-31,107), Miami (-21,373), Washington, D.C. (-12,364) and San Francisco (-11,819).

The presence of Washington, D.C., as one of the metros that millennials are leaving at a faster rate makes sense considering it is a very attractive place for recent graduates, but not such a good market for people more established in their careers as they start families.

The long-term risk for cities like Los Angeles and New York that have been hemorrhaging young people for years now is to their workforce pipeline and tax base, Bokhari said, "since these are the residents who would otherwise stay, buy homes and build careers there for decades."

The one mitigating factor is that most young people are not moving too far: "the biggest single corridor for both generations is Los Angeles to Riverside, and New York to Philadelphia is near the top. The metro loses the resident, but the broader region often keeps the worker," Bokhari said.

Generally, young people are now less likely to make a major move than they were a decade ago or even a few years ago during the pandemic, a trend that is true about the overall U.S. population as well.

Roughly 14 percent of 19- to 24-year-olds moved away from their metro area in 2024, down from roughly 15 percent in 2014. Among 25- to 34-year-olds, the number of those relocating was down from about 11 percent in 2014 to 9 percent 10 years later.

Much of the reason has to do with higher housing costs, according to experts, which are keeping Americans locked in place. When they can move, young people are increasingly making "short moves" within the same states or regions, Redfin found.

The most common route for Gen Z relocating is Los Angeles to Riverside, California, according to researchers, a journey made by 10,261 members of the generation in 2024.

The next-most common routes for Gen Zers are New York to Philadelphia (9,284 movers), and Los Angeles to San Diego (9,237 movers).

Los Angeles to Riverside is also the most popular route among millennials, with 19,983 movers in 2024. Next come Washington, D.C., to Baltimore (11,343 movers), and San Jose to San Francisco (11,302).