Millennials Have Spoken: Living in This State Is Officially Cooler Than California

Finding a starter home and growing a family are two big life changes on the minds of many millennials, and they’re looking for the perfect place in which to do both. According to Storage Cafe’s analysis of U.S. Census records, that’s not necessarily in sunny California. Approximately 2.8 million individuals ages 24 to 39 relocated to a different state in 2022, and a large chunk of them found their dream home in the South. Texas experienced a net influx of more than 75,000 millennials in 2022, making it the top pick for young professionals, followed by Georgia and Florida. Meanwhile, Gen-Zers, who are very comfortable with remote work at this point, are most interested in moving to Connecticut and Washington, D.C.—locations where people’s incomes exceed the national average. 

The draw for millennials moving to Texas probably goes without saying, but we’ll lay it out plain and simple: more bang (er, square footage) for your buck. The migration route from California to Texas is a popular one, especially because the real-estate market is 62 percent more affordable, translating to a potential savings of $440,000 in home acquisition costs, note Storage Cafe’s analysts. Overall, California saw an outflow of approximately 346,000 residents due to domestic migration in 2022. 

So what does it mean to move to Texas and find your dream home? Below, we’re looking back at three home tours that show just what that can look like. 

A Former New Yorker’s Victorian in Austin

This Victorian home’s layout reminded Kim West not only of the London townhouses of her childhood but also the ones she and her family had more recently lived in when they were in Brooklyn. The choppy footprint was a big draw for the Supply Showroom cofounder: With all the little rooms, she could really explore pattern mixing. Today there are a grand total of 13 different wallpapers in her house. 

A Graphic Designer’s Mid-Century Oasis in Dallas

Sometimes it’s not finding your dream house that matters, but identifying your dream aesthetic. Kaitlyn Coffee’s goal when designing her Dallas home was to make it look like a quirky lady redid her house in the late 1960s and no one had changed a thing since, hence the red-striped barstools and white terrazzo countertops in her retro kitchen. 

A Creative Director’s Charming Tudor in Waco

“Squeaky stairs and uneven floors are charming to me,” says Hilary Walker, who recently renovated a 1922 Tudor-style home. But just because Walker lives in Waco and is the creative director of photography and styling at Magnolia doesn’t mean she felt compelled to stick to the modern farmhouse look that has become a mainstay in the area. Instead she opted for saturated paint colors, like the dark blue-green color in her bedroom that she swears convinces her the home is cool inside—even when it’s 100-plus degrees outside.