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.
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