Millennials Seek Small Towns, Affordable Markets
Many millennials are leaving dynamic, primary urban markets for smaller cities offering affordable cost of living, close-knit communities, and entrepreneurial opportunities.
William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan think tank, said to The Pew Charitable Trusts that attracting more young people is a major accomplishment for cities, though “today’s upwardly mobile youth ... should come to expect a rise in housing prices along with more upscale millennial amenities."
Tyler Hodge, the coffee shop owner, is a Tennessee transplant who’s lived in Florida, Washington, D.C., and Brazil. Columbus, he said, has “really been a draw of young talent into an area that wouldn’t ordinarily be sought after — in the middle of the Midwest, surrounded by cornfields and soybeans.”