If it seems like cities these days are crawling with more young people than ever before, that’s because they are, according to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. The Associated Press reports that for the first time in more than 100 years, U.S. cities are growing at a much faster clip than their suburbs, and the growth is in large part fueled by the number of 20- and 30-somethings choosing—or needing—to remain urban dwellers.
Fact is, today’s young professionals graduated from college and into the worst recession in seven decades. So this takeaway by the AP is hardly a surprise:
Burdened with college debt or toiling in temporary, lower-wage positions, they are spurning homeownership in the suburbs for shorter-term, no-strings-attached apartment living, public transit and proximity to potential jobs in larger cities.
But with 1 in 6 U.S. residents now between the ages of 18 and 29, developers are getting used to a cohort some dub “generation rent.” Thanks to a lousy economy, lots of people who were born in the 1980s and 90s aren’t going to be suburban homeowners any time soon.
And that means its boomtime for cities. New Orleans led the pack in 2011, the Census Bureau reported, growing by 3.7 percent while its suburbs crawled up at only 0.6 percent. D.C. had the 14th-largest population growth by number of new residents last year. But the big winner was Texas, which dominated the list of fastest-expanding cities.
Still, not everyone is so jazzed that people are waiting longer than ever to move out to the tree-lined suburbs. Last month, D.C. political gadfly Chuck Thies penned a column for NBC4 in which he admonished the District’s younger set that if the rent in D.C. is too high, then they should consider moving to less-expensive communities in Maryland and Virginia.
In an email to DCist about the Census findings, Thies writes that he doesn’t mind if Mount Pleasant and other desirable neighborhoods are crawling with 20-somethings so long as they can afford the cost of living. “More people [equals] greater demand for housing [equals] higher costs,” he says. “Simple economics.”
As long as people can afford to stay here, Thies says he has no problem with his more youthful neighbors.
“I welcome everyone to the city and hope that current residents can figure out a way to remain, if that is what they desire,” he says. “And I have zero compassion for young folks who move to expensive places and then complain about the cost of living. Zero.”
