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While most of the country remains inert on relocation, moving at now-historically low rates, postgrads between the ages of 25 and 34 are moving more often than ever. Whether we’re looking for jobs, warmer weather, a new batch of degenerates to swipe right on, or more lax substance abuse laws, people our age are packing up and moving out. Further, we’re skipping the ‘burbs and moving into city centers at a rate 37% higher than in 2000.
The cities we are choosing to live in have changed as well. While Atlanta, Dallas, Charlotte, and Raleigh dominated the 1990s, Houston, Nashville, Denver, and Austin have been running wild since the turn of the millenium. Houston’s job market these days is stuff of legend, and Nashville, Denver, and Austin are routinely listed as places with a high standard of living and an endless supply of things to do.
I recently moved to Nashville, and can easily attest to its superiority, and Austin is the both the home base of Post Grad Problems and the place where half my fraternity moved after college. Denver’s been described to me as a place where you can go snowboarding in the mountains in the morning, then lay out by the pool and catch a tan in the afternoon in the city, and frankly that sounds like living the dream.
San Diego, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Washington, LA, and Portland are also big winners when it comes to the young and educated, which is as strange a list of cities as I’ve ever seen. DC and LA are obvious big cities, San Diego has the best weather in the country, and Pittsburgh has been on the up and up for a while, but I can’t think Baltimore without thinking about “The Wire,” Portland without confusing it with Seattle, or Buffalo without thinking about a grey, frozen wasteland.
Really, the only losers here are Detroit, the only major city to actually see a mass exodus, as well as Cleveland, Atlanta, Providence, Memphis, San Francisco, and Boston – cities that are dragging well behind national averages. These make a big more sense, as Detroit is Baghdad without the sand. San Francisco and Boston are terribly expensive. Atlanta’s traffic is some of the worst in the country. Providence is the RC Cola to Boston’s Coke. You will get murdered in Memphis, and Cleveland is, well, Cleveland..
[via New York Times]
image via Wikipedia
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@RogerSterlingUS
Pretty sure Houston, LA, and NY have worse traffic than ATL but dammit I do love Houston
You have never seen Spaghetti Junction, then.
How come nobody made fun of New York? Come on, guys. It’s terrible here.
I feel like NYC is one of those places where everyone should live for a year or two but never longer.
How the hell do you confuse Portland with Seattle? They (Portland) are hipster-douchbags. Meanwhile Seattle is douchbag-hipsters. See the difference.
That’s a good joke, man. You really nailed it.
Thanks. You know it took a lot of contemplation to get it just right.
Also, fuck the Timbers.
Atlanta = future Detroit. Mark it down.
Welcome to Cleveland: “At Least We’re Not Detroit”
Born and raised in Tennessee and currently living in the heart of Nashville, and love it. My friends who moved to Memphis after college don’t feel the same way. There are two types of Memphis people; those who hate it and want to leave and those who are desperately trying to convince others and themselves that it is a great city.
It’s not even a competition. Like trying to compare a fresh Capital Grill steak to a week-old McDonald’s cheeseburger.
I live in Cleveland…
Solid user name, then
Which is why this is the least surprising article of all time to me. Also it’s been raining in Cleveland since Friday.
Only five days? I feel so sad for you…
As someone living in–and loving–Atlanta, I was pretty surprised to see them on the downward trending list. I think a lot of it has to do with how spread out the metro area is.
Atlanta is a pretty awesome city to live in, it’s cheap, great weather, great food, lots of options for nightlife, food, sports, again it’s cheap, concerts, largest Airport in the world, and a growing tech/film industry bringing more people every day.
Not that many people, from the looks of it. I like Atlanta, and go Braves, but I don’t know how y’all deal with that traffic. It doesn’t even make sense.
As a fellow Atlantan I agree. I’m confused by the stats because when you go out you meet recent grads from all over the Southeast and occasionally elsewhere. I do notice less people moving to the “City of Atlanta” and more moving to metro areas like Brookhaven (borderline Atlanta), Sandy Springs, Decatur, etc. I wonder if that factors in.