Where are Millennials moving to? Well, many are moving here.
Apartment List ranks the Tulsa area as Millennials’ ninth-most popular new home over the past 10 years. Chris Salviati said Apartment List’s research counters popular thinking about what attracts members of America’s largest generation.
"Sure, having a dense, walkable city with lots of recreation, that's great and those are things that Millennials look for, but really, the prerequisite is that your city has good job opportunities with good income growth and that it's an affordable place," Salviati said. "Because, you know, Millennials, a lot of them are still struggling with student debt, coming up and trying to establish themselves professionally, and so that's really something that they're looking for."
That’s not to say Tulsa isn’t working on both. While Tulsa’s Millennial population grew more than 10 percent, while median incomes increased nearly 5 percent from 2005 to 2015, local officials continue investing in amenities like the BOK Center, Gathering Place and Arkansas River.
Tulsa isn't an anomaly. Apartment List's analysis of Census data shows seven of the top 10 metro areas Millennials are moving to are in the country’s interior.
"Most of those metros tend to be a lot more affordable, so when Millennials are thinking about where they might settle down, a place like Tulsa, in that sense, is going to be a lot more attractive than San Francisco, per se," Salviati said.
The entire top 10 is No. 1 Charlotte, N.C.; Houston; Austin, Texas; Seattle; Virginia Beach, Va.; Omaha; San Antonio; San Francisco; Tulsa; and Denver.
