Smaller Cities Will Attract Aging Baby Boomers, Study Says

If you wonder where aging baby boomers will live in the years to come, you might want to pay attention to a study released at the Milken Institute’s (https://www.milken-inst.org) Global 2000 Conference.

Small- and medium-sized metropolitan areas are where boomers will settle in the coming years, the study said. The West and South will be favorites, and the states with the fastest-growing elderly populations will be Nevada, Alaska, Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico.

Large coastal cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Miami, meanwhile, will get younger and attract larger immigrant populations. The study also said African Americans seemed to be migrating to the South.

Primarily driving the movement are baby boomers exercising greater professional and financial freedom. Boomers were split into two age groups, 55- to 65-year-old retirees and a 45- to 54-year-old group of recent empty-nesters with newfound mobility.