Gen Z fled San Francisco for Texas and Florida. Now they’re turning to Nashville and Orlando

But prior to now a number of years, youthful staff have been ditching San Francisco for cheaper cities and higher work-life steadiness. It began with a pandemic exodus, as staff moved to be nearer to their households or to pursue a unique life-style; then they steadily drifted towards Texas and Florida, the place jobs have been plentiful and lease was extra manageable. In reality, a survey by world structure agency Gensler confirmed nearly half of San Francisco’s younger, childless adults have been considering a transfer.

And now an April report from industrial actual property and funding administration agency JLL reveals there’s a 3rd chapter in San Francisco’s migration script by which youthful generations are shifting to “welcomer cities” like Nashville and Orlando.

JLL now defines Nashville and Orlando as welcomers as a result of they nonetheless supply loads of company job alternatives, however are extra inexpensive than massive cities. 

“Specifically, Nashville’s outsized cultural presence and Orlando’s favorable tax policy make them powerful magnets for talent,” Travis McCready, head of industries, leasing advisory at JLL, advised Fortune. 

McCready identified welcomer cities general have a web migration charge of 5.2% over the previous three years, whereas “anchor” cities like New York and the Bay Area grew simply 0.6% from migration over the identical time interval.

What this additionally means is welcomer cities like Nashville and Orlando are actually reputable contenders within the innovation economic system, in keeping with JLL, which tracks expertise migration, workplace market dynamics, and company funding throughout 135 cities globally. 

Will ‘welcomer cities’ stick?

Especially prior to now few years, Gen Z has been flocking to extra inexpensive cities simply to get by throughout the cost-of-living disaster. Aside from locations like Texas and Florida, many have made strikes to the Midwest, the place houses are about 30% cheaper than on the coasts. 

A 2025 ConsumerAffairs analysis of U.S. Census Bureau and Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) information discovered that seven of the ten most accessible metros for younger householders are within the Midwest. Unsurprisingly, California dominated the checklist of the least inexpensive metro areas for Gen Z.

A cost-of-living comparison by Apartments.com reveals the price of dwelling in San Francisco is 80.6% larger than in Orlando, and housing costs are 226.2% larger. Compared with Nashville, San Francisco’s price of dwelling is 66.3% larger, and housing is sort of 150% costlier. 

“The pull factors that drew people to affordability- and lifestyle-oriented cities [like Nashville and Orlando] are not likely to disappear, and people have built lives, bought homes, and put down roots in these markets,” McCready stated.

Corporate migration additionally reinforces why youthful persons are shifting. In 2024, Oracle introduced plans to determine what it known as its “world headquarters” in Nashville, committing $1.2 billion in capital funding over a decade and pledging so as to add 8,500 jobs to the realm, with Tennessee state leaders providing a $65 million financial grant to assist offset prices. (Although latest studies counsel Oracle is struggling a bit to draw staff to its workplace.)

Starbucks additionally this spring introduced it could debut a corporate hub in Nashville, which might reportedly be 250,000 sq. toes, or massive sufficient for as much as 2,000 workers, in keeping with CoStar.

“With these growth plans, we see Nashville, Tennessee, as an ideal location to open an office and establish a more strategic presence in the Southeast region of the U.S.,” Starbucks COO Mike Grams stated in an announcement.

In Orlando, Travel + Leisure made the choice to relocate its world headquarters downtown—a transfer McCready known as “a signal worth paying attention to.” Boston-based cybersecurity agency SimSpace additionally moved its headquarters to Orlando this 12 months, and world banking software program firm Temenos, AMD, and Charles Schwab have all introduced expansions in Orlando prior to now couple of years. 

Despite all of those strikes, it under no circumstances suggests cities like San Francisco or New York are lifeless. It simply means they’re competing extra now with midsize markets. 

“What we are seeing in established hubs like New York and the Bay Area is a recovery, but it’s highly selective,” McCready stated. “Demand is concentrating in locations and areas with excessive levels of accessibility, visibility, and entry to facilities. And the availability in these markets is genuinely constraining: Only about 9% of workplace area within the Bay Area and main anchor cities was constructed after 2020.

“So even companies that want to consolidate in San Francisco or New York are competing for a very thin slice of truly desirable space,” he continued.

The workplace market math

For corporations weighing a relocation resolution, the numbers in rising innovation hubs like Orlando or Nashville inform a compelling story. Nashville ranked among the many prime 5 U.S. markets for absorption-to-delivery ratios in 2025, with 35% of latest provide absorbed final 12 months, alongside New York, Charlotte, Seattle, and Phoenix. Class A rents sit at $43.52 per sq. foot, which is meaningfully beneath large-city charges however in area McCready describes as “genuinely competitive.”

Orlando’s emptiness charge of 15.3% is properly beneath the nationwide common of twenty-two.4%, and the market is seeing regular demand for high-quality, amenity-rich area. That stands in distinction to the Bay Area, the place solely about 9% of whole workplace stock was constructed after 2020, and the place prime rents common $1,296 per sq. meter. Class A+ rents in a welcomer metropolis (like Orlando or Nashville) common $627 per sq. meter, roughly half that determine, in keeping with JLL’s information.

“You are competing for very little space against very deep-pocketed incumbents” in San Francisco, McCready stated. “Emerging hubs offer something increasingly rare: optionality. More modern inventory, more competitive rents, and—critically—talent pools that are growing, not just circulating.”

A model of this story was initially revealed on Fortune.com on April 2, 2026.