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American suburbia comes loaded with preconceptions and promises: It’s a haven for loitering, bored teens in strip malls and a hell for road-rage-filled drivers hunting for deals and hot dogs in Costco parking lots. The locale has shifted from the idyllic 1950s perfection of The Dick Van Dyke Show and I Love Lucy to the quiet and repressive villain in more recent fare like Twin Peaks or any Todd Solondz movie. One of the starkest depictions may have been in The Good Place, where a suburban development was (spoiler alert) revealed to be designed by an actual demon experimenting with a new circle of hell.
For eight years now, as millennials have entered their thirties and forties, also known as “homebuying age,” Bank of America has surveyed over 1,000 members of the generation once a year for its Home Work series. And for 2023’s edition, it finds a “suburban nation” alive and well. Older millennials (age 31–41) are almost three times as likely to move into a house than an apartment, the survey found, and they’ve got a hunger for the Costco dog, so to speak.
Migration patterns during the pandemic have clearly established that most homebuyers have wanted to flee big cities, with some “zoomtowns” such as Boise benefiting in particular. But the survey reveals something even more drastic. In a section called “suburban nation,” BofA reveals that 43% to 45% of millennials—of every age—expect to buy a house in the suburbs.
“We expect the ability to WFH to remain an incentive for young families to seek out more remote suburban and rural markets where housing may be more affordable,” wrote the BofA team led by research analyst Elizabeth Suzuki. And remote work is still robust, they added.
Millennials are also looking toward the suburbs for wealth-building. A majority (two-thirds) of them believe that they’ll buy a home in the next two years, citing a return on investment as the number one reason for purchasing.
The interest is pervasive across the generation, and maybe means that the suburb is in for a new and better revival. And a 2021 study from Pew Research Center found that one in five adults preferred city life, compared to one quarter of adults in 2018, those who favored the suburbs increased post COVID-19 as well. One of suburbia’s worst qualities or stereotypes was its pervasive whiteness, now with the surge in interest the suburbs are starting to grow to reflect the diversity of the country at large. Big suburbs are actually now more racially diverse than the nation, according to a Brookings analysis.
Millennials are increasingly looking to buy rather than rent, even compared to just last year, as the cost of rent hikes and more of the cohort ages into suburban fixtures like marriage and having children. Last summer, Brookings shared its calculations with the Wall Street Journal that a married, middle-income household with two kids would likely spend more than $300,000 on one of their children. With an already surging price tag of having a family, living well might mean leading a bit more of a boring day-to-day and shipping out to a life of lawn mowing and book club.
But just because there was a mass exodus from many cities during the pandemic doesn’t mean the suburban dream was readily attainable, as Brookings pointed out last July that suburban growth around most metro areas showed signs of slowing as of the end of 2021. Still, big cities saw “historic population losses” over the same period. More recently, major metros such as New York City have rebounded, but inflation continues to make the suburbs and small towns more appealing as those with remote jobs are able to move for a bargain.
That doesn’t mean that millennials don’t understand how dire the housing market can be. In fact, many are especially pessimistic about the future: 61% think home prices will rise and 71% believe rents will go up in the next three years. While there are more millennial homeowners than ever before, those who have been pushed out of the market entirely cite issues of affordability as major setbacks. But as the BofA survey suggests, the pandemic has given new legs to the idyllic, then dreaded, then beloved suburban lifestyle. Millennials reported to BoA that the pandemic increased their likelihood of buying a home, and there’s an overwhelmingly popular destination of where to go. They want to go to the good place.
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Colorado millennials Vee Weir and Joe Bogumill were able to make ends meet in 2022, even though neither of them had a traditional 9-to-5 job.
Weir, 30, owns a digital marketing firm and a personal finance blog called Vee Frugal Fox, where she shares about becoming debt free as of 2021 and how the increasing cost of living affects her family’s finances. Weir also earns up to $16,000 a year as a part-time dogsitter.
See Insider’s picks for the best budgeting apps >>
Bogumill, 34, is pursuing a degree from University of Colorado in anthropology and internal affairs while working part-time at a local brewery.
For context, here’s what the couple earned monthly from their different income sources in 2022:
Bogumill, a US Marine veteran, received a monthly educational stipend from the GI Bill while he was in school. The program provides veterans with money for housing, tuition, and supplies. However, the funds stop coming once the recipient leaves or finishes school.
Bogumill decided to take a yearlong break from school, which meant that roughly a third of the couple’s monthly income would be cut. Thankfully, they had time to create long-term plan to adjust to the $2,232 decrease.
If you’re worried that you or your spouse may be laid off in 2023, here are five strategies Weir and Bogumill used to stay afloat.
“I think a lot of people have this desire to look at little things they can cut,” Weir says. “But where you’re gonna save the most money is your big three: housing, transportation, and food.”
With that in mind, the couple uses one car, and they rely on public transit in Longmont, Colorado to get to and from work, and to run errands.
After cutting costs in the “big three” categories, Weir and Bogumill audited their monthly subscriptions. On average, Americans spend $219 per month on subscription services, according to nonprofit organization Next Gen Personal Finance.
The first place to cut back was on their phone bill.
“My husband and I pay $30 combined each month for our cell phone service with Mint Mobile. Before, when we were with Verizon, we spent $175 and you have to buy your iPhone outright. Just that [switch] has saved us so much money,” says Weir.
The couple also teams up with their friends to split entertainment subscriptions.”We pay for one service, then we let our friends pay for everything else,” Weir says. Splitting costs with their community helps Weir and Bogumill cut costs on subscriptions altogether.
Since Weir and Bogumill knew their income would be decreasing by about 33% months before it happened, they were able to make plans to cover that cost. Bogumill spoke with his bosses at the brewery to make sure he could pick up extra shifts.
According to records reviewed by Insider, Bogumill earned $2,296.48 in February, almost double what he was earning per month while he was in school.
Because Weir owns her own business, she has the freedom to decide how her pricing structure changes. She increased her firm’s package prices by 20%.
Above all, Weir and Bogumill credit their financial literacy for keeping her family calm throughout these changes. They’re diligent about budgeting and saving, plus they became debt-free in 2021 and have a full emergency savings fund.
“We’re just thinking of different ways you can increase your income and kind of weather the storm,” Weir says. “It makes it a lot easier to go through these transitions when you educate yourself, you know, by going on Instagram and following people that are financially savvy, listening to podcasts, reading blogs.”
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