Much has been written about the influential role millennials play in business and real estate decisions, along with shopping and housing trends. One comment that often crops up is the generation’s preference for living in urban locations that are close to restaurants and entertainment venues.
And that’s very true, says Walt Bialas, vice president and market research director at JLL. But don’t discount the impact of millennials on suburban markets—especially in red-hot areas like the upper tollway region in North Texas.
This greater Legacy area has an extremely high concentration of millennials (ages 25-34), Bialas says, with more than 25,000 residing along or near the upper tollway.
“I believe there are two drivers here,” he says. “First, people often choose to live close to work. So, it does not surprise me that Legacy has a high concentration of millennials—after all, jobs here are plentiful and growing and represent some of the strongest companies in DFW. Add to that, the northern suburbs are a local hot spot for tech workers, and you have the key ingredients driving these numbers.”
Legacy’s live-work-play-shop environment adds to the appeal, Bialas says. “Although it is not our urban core, it still has the ingredients that this workforce finds attractive,” he says.
Millennials within a 15-minute range of Legacy comprise about 13 percent of the area’s total population base. And they have money to spend. Millennials living in the Legacy region have an average household income of $86,000, which is 28 percent higher than the DFW average, JLL reports.
