Once you graduate, it can be beyond difficult to figure out where you want to live. You have multiple options, but all of them are overwhelming. You can stay in your college town, which is safe and easy, but can start to feel like a tiny bubble collapsing around you, as more and more of your friends leave. You can always move home, which in some cases might be your only option, if limited job opportunities and student loans up the wazoo make returning to your childhood bedroom as an almost-adult a necessity. Even if lying alone at night in your twin bed isn’t your favorite choice, at least you have your parent’s home cooking and no utility bills to pay. Then, there’s the scariest option of all– eschewing choices A. and B. to move to a city you’re not familiar with. Whether you have friends already there, or know absolutely no one, it can feel like a huge, terrifying step.
While it might seem like everyone you know’s either living in their parent’s basement or moving directly to New York City (or getting engaged regularly, but that’s another story), there are so many other options. 25 to 34 year-olds with bachelor’s degrees are moving to the close-in neighborhoods that surround large metropolitan areas in droves, in ways they haven’t been in the past. Our migration (see also: gentrification) is in turn fueling economic development and urban revitalization. Using data from the American Community Survey, the new think tank City Observatory created a report that looks at population change in the 51 metropolitan areas that have a population of 1 million or more. It also looks at nearby neighborhoods, which are within 3 miles of the city’s central business district. These once abandoned urban cores are now attracting young graduates.
Places like Buffalo, Cleveland, New Orleans, and Pittsburgh have all experienced population declines over the last decade. Now, college graduates are moving to these cities and their surrounding areas, despite the economic troubles they might find. Cities like Denver, San Diego, Nashville, Salt Lake City, and Portland are seeing a number of young adults moving in, searching for cool culture but less crowds. It makes sense. As much as I love New York City, it’s certainly not easy living here. Once you add up the cost of living and think about all the other twentysomething’s with the exact same goals, it makes Houston, Nashville, and Denver look more and more appealing. No matter where you choose to move after graduation, know that your migration is making a serious impact. For every college graduate who takes a job in a new industry, five more jobs are created in that city. It’s a cycle– the more young people that move to an area, the more businesses that follow.
[Lead image via]
Follow Margaret here.
College Grads Are Living in Surprising Cities
