Exiting nests: Young adults flock to aging Austin

High home costs and sluggish hiring are prompting fewer Americans to move in recent years, a recent study found, affecting lower-income populations most significantly. As a generational outlier, Gen Z youth continue to leave the nest to flock to pricier cities, including Austin.

The Bank of America Institute report “Who’s Still on the Move?” found that members of Gen Z — now ages 14 to 29 — are the only age group that’s more mobile today than in 2023. Gen Z is moving to high-cost cities on the West Coast and to such inland places as Denver, Minneapolis and Austin, the study found. 

“Gen Z may be attracted to cities with growing employment and career prospects,” the report said. Noting that Denver and Minneapolis continued to attract young people despite recent employment contractions, the report speculated that lifestyle and cultural amenities are part of the allure.

“Historically, we’ve been going down in terms of migration levels for a long time, and the pandemic really made it even worse,” William Frey, a demographer with the Washington-based nonprofit Brookings Institution, told the Austin Free Press. “There was a little bit of an uptick the year afterwards, but … it’s still pretty down. And the groups that tend to move the most, of course, are young adults.” 

City of Austin demographer Lila Valencia agreed that Gen Z, in their teens to late 20s, is at “the peak migration age, no matter what point in time in our history you’re looking at.”

Frey said that cities with high Gen Z influxes include “a whole bunch of college towns” such as Austin. Valencia also pointed to Austin’s “large university populations.” 

Gen Z also is less affected than older generations by high interest rates and housing sales prices, another Bank of America Institute report found, because only about a third of those young adults own homes. Meanwhile, Gen Z incomes have risen faster than their rents, the study found.

Expensive cities such as New York, San Francisco, Seattle and San Jose all experienced recent increases in Gen Z populations, data shows, even as they lost older populations, who may be migrating to more affordable locations.

Cities including Raleigh, Minneapolis, Sacramento, Richmond and Austin stand out for attracting growing populations of both Millennials and Gen Z, the study found. 

Frey cautioned against projecting trends from this “very unusual period” that spans the pandemic and a pricey housing market.

Austin Free Press previously reported that adults ages 65 and older are Austin’s fastest-growing population. 

“It’s the 75-plus population that’s growing” due to that “baby boom generation that’s moving into those older age categories in the senior population,” Valencia said. “The lack of affordability, the high interest rates” are prompting many older residents to stay put in their current homes, she said.

Though fast growing, those older residents account for 11% of the city’s population, according to Austin Demographics. The same source identifies the city’s single largest age group as young people ages 25 to 29, who are Gen Z’s eldest members.

“Austin is one of the top migration magnets for all ages,” Frey told the Austin Free Press. “A lot of people move there and just stay there. Baby boomers are a big population, and that population moved up into the over-65 age group.”

Frey’s analysis of U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey data supports the Bank of America report. His data shows that Texas and metro Austin both ranked No. 1 in the nation in average annual net domestic migration for young people ages 18 to 29 from 2020 to 2024. Bank of America based its more recent but less comprehensive data on the movements of its customers. 

“There’s definitely some limitations to the data, but it’s always helpful to just see another perspective on what’s happening in Austin,” Valencia said.

Texas ranked as the No. 1 destination for millennials ages 30 to 44, and Austin is the No. 5 choice for them, trailing Jacksonville, Florida, Houston, Las Vegas, and Riverside, California. That could reflect the greater importance that this older cohort puts on home prices.

Metro Austin’s overall domestic net migration of people of all ages showed a general decline from the pandemic peak in 2020 to 2025, Frey’s analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data found. He said this suggests a return to normal after people abandoned California and the Northeast for the Sun Belt during the pandemic.

Not surprisingly, the wealthiest 5% of America’s population was the income group with the smallest decline in mobility, “likely because they have been less impacted” by rising housing costs, the Bank of America report said. Conversely, movement by lower- and middle-income households has dropped by more than 10% compared to late 2023.

The report found that outliers “Salt Lake City, Denver and Austin saw significantly stronger increases in lower-income households than higher-income ones, possibly reflecting strong population growth for younger generations,” many of whom earn less money in this early stage of their careers.

Valencia said that another factor is that migrants from out of state tend to be a little older, more educated and more affluent. But most people come to Austin from other parts of Texas and they tend to have lower incomes. She said that Austin would draw even more Texas migrants if the cost of living wasn’t so expensive.

Both Valencia and Frey said that one local demographic trend to keep an eye on is slowing growth as a result of dwindling international immigration.

Austin was “the fastest-growing large metro area in the country for 12 consecutive years,” Valencia said. “Post-pandemic it dropped to No. 2 and then … down to four.” Factors driving that decline include high costs and the fact that “tech jobs have continued to decline in the Austin area.”

Earlier this year, the Census Bureau reported that “we had moved back up to No. 2” in growth, Valencia said. But that was largely due to “declines in international migration in Houston and Orlando.”

Andrew Wheat is the Data, Information and Enterprise Editor of the Austin Free Press.