The Urban Magnet: An Economic Analysis of the Millennial Migration to America’s Cities

Abstract

This paper provides an explanation for the continued rise of young, collegeeducated individuals living near cities in the United States from 2011-2016. I show that this recent movement is being driven by the Millennial generation. I use job density, housing prices, and amenity density to analyze and illustrate this urbanization trend through locally weighted and OLS regressions. My evidence acknowledges that a positive change in job density for all wage groups best explains college educated individuals’ preference for living in the city, whereas amenity density and housing prices do not seem to have a strong relationship with population change. Although all different age groups continue to locate in and around city centers, college educated individuals demonstrate the greatest attraction to living there, especially the youngest, Millennial generation.