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Millennials are young adults of this generation from their mid-20s into their late 30s and they are not the same as the college-aged students of today. Current college students and recent graduates appreciate dense cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. True millennials are migrating away from those spots and data from The Brookings Institution says Houston is at the top of the list for young adult migration destinations.
New York is hemorrhaging young adults faster than any city in the U.S., followed by L.A. and Chicago. They are moving out from those cities and moving to Houston.
Houston experienced the largest migration of young adults in the last five years, and before that, Houston was second only to Denver, Colorado.
A few reasons for the migration trend are the following:
Great suburban areas
80 percent of the millennial population growth in the last ten years has occurred in suburban areas, which Houston has plenty of and many of which offer robust job opportunities.
Quality of life
Compared to New York or Chicago, Houston is cleaner, has a fraction of the homelessness rate, and is a generally easier place to manage life.
Weather
The majority of the most popular cities for young adult migration are in the Sun Belt, southern and western regions of the U.S. The Houston-area gets hurricanes once in a while, but in some places, people have to de-ice their vehicles daily.
Strong middle class
As New York loses its middle class to other cities, it is left with two extremes — the ultra rich or a mix of either poor or young and single. These two groups live such different lives, it makes for harsh political battles.
The bottom line is that compared to the "urban jungles" of New York or L.A., it is easy to live comfortably in Houston while still enjoying the perks of a large city.