Suggested Citation:
Lee, Yongsung, Giovanni Circella, Patricia L. Mokhtarian, Subhrajit Guhathakurta (2019) Heterogeneous Residential Preferences among Millennials and Members of Generation X in California: a Latent-Class Approach. Transportation Research Part D 76

The millennial generation, the cohort born from 1981 to 1996, lives in large cities or denser parts of metropolitan areas more than preceding generations did at the same age. To explain their residential choice, the literature points to temporary economic hardship, long-term societal changes, and changing preferences and attitudes. This study examines a less-explored but critical aspect: heterogeneous residential preferences across and within generations. In doing so, this study employs a latent-class choice model on a commuter subsample of millennials and members of Generation X (n=729) of the California Millennials Dataset, which collected a rich set of variables on various dimensions in fall 2015. Using randomly-generated unlabeled choice sets at the US Census block group level, this study finds three latent classes. The younger, pro-urban class (53%) behaves as the stereotypical millennials in popular media, preferring urban amenities; the affluent, highly-educated class (32%) appears to pursue lifestyles and high socioeconomic status over homeownership or good school districts; and the middle-class homeowner class (15%) accepts traditional family-oriented suburban lifestyles. After the examination of changing shares of the three classes by age and neighborhood type, the authors provide suggestions for future research and effective planning responses.