A new survey from Trulia confirms similar surveys in the past: Millennial housing preferences really aren’t much different from those of previous generations. Contrary to claims that most Millennials want to live in inner-city multifamily housing, nearly 90 percent of Millennials aspire to buy a single-family home. Moreover, the vast majority hoping to live in suburbs or small towns, while only 8 percent say they want to live in a central city.
The myth that Millennials want to live in cities is so pervasive that one news report claimed that the results of this survey contradict the “reality” that people are moving to the cities. In fact, as Wendell Cox has shown, central city population growth was slower in the 2000s than the 1990s, for both Millennials and the population in general. Meanwhile, suburbs and small towns continue to grow faster than center cities, even among 20-29 year olds.
While the populations of core neighborhoods in and near downtowns are growing when measured on a percentage basis, this is mainly because these populations were so low in the first place. The 1950s and 1960s saw most major cities evict residents from their downtowns as a part of the urban renewal process, which was the urban planning fad of that era. Now, the same urban renewal tools–tax-increment financing, eminent domain, and other gifts to developers–are used to bring people back to downtowns, which is today’s urban planning fad. While planners have proven that “if you subsidize it, they will come,” this isn’t evidence of a huge and permanent change in housing tastes.
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Trulia found that Millennials say they value living close to work and in a great school district more highly than whether they lived in a city or suburb. But, with most jobs in the suburbs today, they are more likely to find those things in the suburbs than in the cities. In general, regardless of age, Trulia concludes that most Americans “want a mid-sized, modern home in the suburbs with a backyard deck.”
It is so humorous how media will print the most ridiculous statistics. My favorite is the “fastest growing” statistic when something “triples” from 0.5% to 1.5%. Or how housing prices have “grown” since the bottom of the last recession or “fallen” since just before the recession.
First, this is an online survey, not a scientific poll. That said, the Antiplanner overlooked the part that reads: “When describing where their dream home is located, most Americans wanted to live in the countryside (27%) and suburbs (27%) rather than in the heart of a major American city (8%).”
The country, according to this non-scientific survey, is equally desirable as suburbs to most Americans.
Green Acres is the place to be.
Farm livin’ is the life for me.
Land spreadin’ out so far and wide
Keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside.
Until they get bored and go stir crazy, or the well pump fails, or the power does, or they get snowed in or they get tired of driving 30 miles each way for groceries/restaurant/movie/bar, or a neighbor shoots and guts a deer just outside their property while their kids watch, or a coyote eats their cats…
I can’t help but feel a little sorry for the Antiplanner when I read posts like this one. It’s almost as if he feels he’s losing some sort of culture war. Why else would he point to an opinion survey by a real estate listings website to validate his anti-city dogma?
“Until they get bored and go stir crazy, or the well pump fails, or the power does, or they get snowed in or they get tired of driving 30 miles each way for groceries/restaurant/movie/bar, or a neighbor shoots and guts a deer just outside their property while their kids watch, or a coyote eats their cats…”
Thanks for the over simplification. As someone who lived on a farm for 14 years and in national parks for a decade, your snark does a serious disservice to those who long to return to the country. I’ll take someone gutting a deer outside my property than the shit I’ve had to deal with in the city that has occurred on my property. ANY DAY. 30 miles to a movie was my childhood. What’s funny is that took under a half hour. Now I have to drive a half hour to go SEVEN MILES to the theatre AND IN TERRIBLE TRAFFIC full of asshole drivers.
So please STFU unless you can contribute something substantial. Thanks!
Frank:
My comment intended only to point out that many people who think they want to live in the country, but who have no experience of it often find they hate it. I was sort of emphasizing your point that the survey was ‘unscientific’, not intending to insult you.
If I want to insult you, I will do so directly, and without passo-aggro circumlocutions like ‘STFU’.
Frank, you are a nasty bastard with a hair trigger temper. Fuck off.
My comment intended only to point out that many people “who think they want to live in the country, but who have no experience of it often find they hate it.”
Thanks for admitting that you’re a condescending asshole.
A lot of cities have been seeing growth for a first time in a long time. That’s an important change for them. More importantly isn’t that it’s as simple as population growth but a lot of upper income households.
”
I can’t help but feel a little sorry for the Antiplanner when I read posts like this one. It’s almost as if he feels he’s losing some sort of culture war.
” ~ohai
You mistake the process of sussing out the details, building accuracy, with being anti-city. Where has Mr. O’toole called for skyscrapers to be torn down or condos to be banned? They don’t exist, just posts like this one pointing out that most people still aren’t interested in spending hard earned income on expensive housing in the core.
First, this is an online survey, not a scientific poll.
What is a “scientific” poll? The article contained a fairly detailed discussion of the sample construction and the weighting schemes used to improve the representativeness of the sample, along with the adjustment to account for the online format.
This is a more extensive (and honest) description of the data collection process than you will see for 99% of publicly reported surveys. Using online surveys can be tricky, but as long as you account for some of the major sources of bias, they can be useful.