Dive Brief:
- A Columbia University and Getulio Vargas Foundation study has hypothesized that a "reduced tolerance for commuting" is driving well-off young households into urban areas, CityLab reported. The study found well-educated, high-income, dual-breadwinner households are often willing to pay more to live in central business districts (CBDs) to get more leisure time.
- The study found that there has been a rise in the number of full-time workers with advanced college degrees moving into CBDs, and that there is also a higher concentration of jobs suited to those skills. In addition, those jobs tend to require long hours, which would lead to long commute times for those living in the suburbs.
- The study group takes these metrics and combines then with an assumed general decline in free time among the highly educated to conclude that "a growing corps of high-income-low-leisure households who by virtue of being time starved seek to locate close to work. Thus, our paper adds urban renewal to the list of time-saving machinations of modern life."
Dive Insight:
CityLab pointed to two flaws in the study. One, the researchers studied large, owner-occupied homes even though cities have a high number of smaller, rented units. There is also evidence, CityLab reported, that commute times haven’t changed significantly, as the study asserts.
"We don't have direct evidence on this hypothesis," researchers Lena Edlund and Cecilia Machado told CityLab. "Our case is built on evidence that point in that direction."
Despite these questions about the study, it points to an overall trend that has emerged of young people choosing to live in cities rather than suburbs. While some expect that preference to change once millennials start to have families, others have predicted many in the younger generation will elect to remain in urban areas — a trend that has major implications for the future housing market.