Where Are Millennials Moving? 'Vacation Moves' Are A Popular Living Option For Young Adults

Most millennials have a long-term action plan when it comes to their short-term living arrangements, a new survey found.

In Mayflower Mover Insights's 2017 study, published Tuesday, the moving company revealed most millennials – aged 18 to 35 years – ventured to new cities and opted for shorter-term living arrangements before moving elsewhere to settle. In a move dubbed as a “vacation move,” many millennials are heading off to new cities in search of work, a new job or just to explore a new city or state, the study revealed.

Mayflower sponsored the Research Now survey, which compiled data from 1,000 millennials. The survey revealed two in five respondents were proclaimed “vacation movers” and had moved to a new location without intending to stay for good. Nearly 75 percent of those surveyed said they moved to a new city with an exact timeframe in mind. Thirty percent of the surveyed millennials said they made a vacation move for a change in lifestyle, more than 25 percent said they made their move to find a new job and 40 percent moved to take a new job.

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Perhaps unsurprisingly, urban environments draw a number of millennials, whether the dwellers are based within an inner suburb, within, or near a big city.

The top 10 cities that most appealed to millennials were based on Mayflower’s moving data. The first was San Francisco, California, with Los Angeles taking second place and Washington D.C. ranking third. Seattle and Chicago ranked fourth and fifth, respectively.

“Millennials are a generation of what I call ‘adventure movers.’ Their motivations for moving are influenced by a sense of adventure, making these moves relatively short-term,” Dr. Jeffrey Arnett, a research professor at the Department of Psychology at Clark University said in a statement. “More than any generation before them, millennials have defined their 20s as a period of freedom and instability. This flexibility allows millennials to make moves in search of new job opportunities or adventures, even if they don’t plan to stay in the long run.”

Currently, millennials are at a stage in their lives where moving – be it for a job, graduate school or to even purchase a home – is a natural lifestyle choice. That said, while millennials might plan on making a move in the next few years, many remained in the same location for more than a year, according to a recent Pew Research study.

The study, which was published in February, found that in 2016, 20 percent of millennials aged 25 to 35 said they had lived elsewhere a year earlier. For those millennials that did move in the past year, job opportunities were a top reason for moving.