Millennials Are Moving to Midwestern Inner Cities and Businesses Are Following Suit

Wholly two-thirds of young Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 have moved within the past five years. One of the major factors contributing to why people are moving both at younger ages and more frequently than ever before is because they’re Millennials who aren’t pursuing a particular career path but who are job-hopping and perhaps pursuing their passion.

According to Builder, Millennials all across the country are moving to the Midwest. Minneapolis is currently the most popular city for new Millennial homebuyers, followed by Philly, St. Louis, and Chicago.

In Minneapolis, Millennials made roughly 44% of all home purchases during October. In more conventionally popular states like Florida and California, however, the Millennial purchasing rates were between 20% and 30%, representing the smallest portion of Millennial homebuyers.

“As housing prices continue to rebound, Millennials are increasingly representing a higher percentage of home owners in the middle of the country, where they can get more home for their money,” said Joe Tyrrell, executive vice president of corporate strategy at Ellie Mae. “The average appraised value of homes purchased by this new generation of buyers was $223,153 in October, a modest increase from $221,383 in September, but nearly a five percent increase from when it was $212,939 in June.”

The Financial Times is reporting that businesses are following the Millennials’ trend of moving to some of these Midwestern cities, especially Chicago.

In less than a decade, 50 popular companies have moved their headquarters out of blight-free areas into the inner city of Chicago because that’s where this young demographic, and all their money, is located.

“It reflects the types of people employers are now looking for: Millennials want different types of things from their employers, culture and convenience are two very important things, and the idea of getting in a car or a train and transporting for an hour to the suburbs is, for many millennials, a non-starter,” said Paul Reaumond, of CBRE, who has assisted many businesses make the move to downtown Chicago. “They want to walk to work, take public transport, they want wellness facilities, space to work outside, yoga studios, etc.”

If more cities follow this trend, more money will be spent within the cities and not just on the outskirts while the inner city suffers. Millennials are moving as they please and it’s time for businesses to keep up.