The Urban Millenials

G. M. Filisko, writing for Realtor, on the emerging trend of Millennials’ preferences for urban living:

Millennials own fewer cars and drive less than their predecessors. They’d rather walk, bike, car-share, and use public transportation — and want to live where that’s all easy.

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With drastically different views of transportation from those of the generations that came before them, millennials like Izzo are transforming communities and the developments that shape them. The still-unanswered question is whether that’s a short-term or a permanent transformation.

Whether it is a permanent transformation or not is a valid question. I believe that it is a permanent shift as the underlying reasons are structural. I think the point that gets left out of this discussion is the idea of scale. While a preference for compact, walkable neighborhoods might manifest itself as urban apartment living now, that isn’t the underlying trend. If the group that loves the urban apartment life suddenly finds themselves with kids, the desire for walkability doesn’t go away but maybe the manifestation changes - the scale changes. I think it is important to differentiate between the underlying trend and the result of that trend. To me, walkable and compact neighborhoods is a trend that will stay. How that manifests itself will likely shift as we move forward.