Millennials, transportation, and housing

New Geography

Turns out that the millennial generation is a lot like previous generations, even preferring to live in the suburbs like their parents:

When asked---in a 2010 survey by Frank Magid and Associates---where would be their “ideal place to live,” more millennials identified suburbs than previous generations, including boomers. Another survey, published last year by the National Association of Homebuilders, found that 75 percent of millennials favor settling in a single-family house, 90 percent preferring the suburbs or even a more rural area but only 10 percent the urban core.

Bad news too about millennials for the anti-car movement, since they're buying a lot of cars these days and driving a lot. The American people overall are driving more than ever and car sales are way up as the Great Recession winds down.

Even Citylab questions the recent hype about an increase in people using mass transit.

A reader's comment on a recent story on commuting in the Bay Area in the San Jose Mercury News explains the graph above :

Yes, I could take mass transit if I had to. But I really prefer my comfortable 30 minute drive over the hour and 35 minutes it would take me to walk to the bus stop, take the bus to light rail, ride the light rail at walking speed through downtown, catch the other light rail train to head west, then wait for a shuttle bus for the final ride to work. And that's IF I'm lucky and make all my connections on schedule.

But what about bikes? The graph above also shows how insignificant that transportation "mode" really is.