Where’s the best place for millennials? NC city named among most desirable to renters
North Carolina is home to a top U.S. city for younger adults who hope to rent, a new report finds.
Charlotte ranks No. 6 on a list of places that are most desirable for adults ages 24 to 39, also called millennials or Generation Y, according to results released Thursday from RentCafé.
To come up with its findings, the apartment hunting website says it focused on 61 U.S. cities with populations that topped 300,000. Analysts reviewed anonymous data from more than 5.6 million apartment applications to determine the share of younger adults wanting to rent over the past five years, according to RentCafé.
In Charlotte, almost 43% of applicants were millennials, helping the city earn a top spot in the national rankings, data show.
“Charlotte is not showing any signs of stepping down in the future either, as this year, an even larger share of Gen Ys applied for housing here – 47.6%,” RentCafé said Thursday in a news release. “This means that the city maintains its sixth position on the list of the next Millennial hubs.”
The Queen City is attracting the largest portions of its millennials from within North Carolina, most coming from Raleigh as well as the suburbs of Concord and Matthews, findings show.
It’s not the first time Charlotte received a nod for attracting residents.
In February, the city was named among the best places in the country for people wanting to move, McClatchy reported. The housing website Curbed said jobs, parks and other “livability” factors helped Charlotte earn recognition.
But the Queen City missed out on another recent ranking.
In January, Raleigh was the only place in North Carolina to make it onto a list of top 10 metro areas for millennials who want to relocate, McClatchy News reported. Real estate blog CommercialCafé said it analyzed U.S. population and workforce data to determine the results.
The results come at a time when most younger adults are renters and can help shape places where they choose to live, according to RentCafé.
“Millennials have officially become the largest workforce generation in the U.S, and are consequently dictating the fate and development of big American cities,” the website said in its news release. “The first renters-by-choice, Gen Ys have flocked to and claimed many cities.”
Overall, the recent report finds Seattle is the trendiest city for renters over the past five years. Rounding out the top five were San Francisco, Austin, Houston and San Antonio, results show.
This story was originally published October 9, 2020 at 9:06 AM with the headline "Where’s the best place for millennials? NC city named among most desirable to renters."
