Phoenix’s suburbs offer affordable living for millennials on move
May 22, 2015, 6:34 AM | Updated: 7:59 am
Unless they’re still under mom and dad’s roof, the suburbs might not be the place you’ll find city-loving millennials these days.
Or is it?
Growing weary of the increasing rent and other costs associated with urban living, some millennials are slowly coming around to the idea that the ‘burbs have some options that might just cater to their brand of lifestyle after all.
Realtor Diane Brennan said Phoenix suburbs — such as Gilbert, Peoria and Glendale — also offer affordability for young couples looking to buy their first home.
“All the different cities and communities provide their own unique amenities,” she said.
Gilbert’s San Tan Village, for example, provides a lot of entertainment, shopping and dining choices for millennials. The East Valley, added Brennan, “is fantastic for providing common areas in communities like grassy areas and playgrounds for kids.”
With many millennials trying to get the most out of their purchasing power, Brennan also said it makes sense for the fiscally responsible to buy affordable housing in the suburbs, rather than rent in high-cost urban areas.
“For what they’re paying for rent they can buy a nice, three-bedroom, two-bathroom home,” said Brennan, adding that building equity and tax write-offs are some of the perks of home ownership.
Millennials are often described as those between the ages of 25 and 34. Citing data from the U.S. Census Bureau released in March, the website fivethirtyeight.com pointed out recently that 529,000 young Americans in their late 20s, moved out of cities and into the suburbs in 2014. Meanwhile, some 426,000 moved the opposite way.
The city-to-suburb movement is still much lower for millennials than it was for past generations. Statistics show people in the same age group in the mid-1990s were twice as likely to migrate from the city to the suburbs, than the other way around.
Only about a quarter of that demo is more likely to make that move today.
Realtor Diane Brennan hosts That Real Estate Show Sundays at 8 a.m. on KTAR News 92.3 FM.
