From the mid-2000s by the late 2010s, San Francisco was a magnet for younger graduates pushed largely by Web 2.0 and the cellular tech growth. It was a cool metropolis that boasted high-paying jobs and promised a breezy West Coast way of life.
But in the previous a number of years, youthful employees have been ditching San Francisco for cheaper cities and higher work-life steadiness. It began with a pandemic exodus, as employees moved to be nearer to their households or to pursue a unique way of life; then they steadily drifted towards Texas and Florida, the place jobs have been plentiful and lease was extra manageable. In truth, a survey by international structure agency Gensler confirmed nearly half of San Francisco’s younger, childless adults have been considering a transfer.
And now a brand new report from business actual property and funding administration agency JLL reveals there’s a 3rd chapter in San Francisco’s migration script during 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 provide loads of company job alternatives, however are extra reasonably priced 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 price 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 at the moment are legit contenders in the innovation financial system, in response to JLL, which tracks expertise migration, workplace market dynamics, and company funding throughout 135 cities globally.
Especially in the previous few years, Gen Z has been flocking to extra reasonably priced cities simply to get by throughout the cost-of-living disaster. Aside from locations like Texas and Florida, many have made moves 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) knowledge discovered that seven of the 10 most accessible metros for younger householders are in the Midwest. Unsurprisingly, California dominated the checklist of the least reasonably priced metro areas for Gen Z.
A cost-of-living comparison by Apartments.com reveals the price of dwelling in San Francisco is 80.6% increased than in Orlando, and housing costs are 226.2% increased. Compared with Nashville, San Francisco’s price of dwelling is 66.3% increased, and housing is sort of 150% dearer.
“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 mentioned.
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 space, with Tennessee state leaders providing a $65 million financial grant to assist offset prices. (Although recent reports suggest Oracle is struggling a bit to draw employees to its workplace.)
Starbucks additionally not too long ago introduced it might debut a corporate hub in Nashville, which might reportedly be 250,000 sq. toes, or massive sufficient for as much as 2,000 staff, in response to 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 mentioned in a press release.
In Orlando, Travel + Leisure made the determination to relocate its international 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 yr, and international banking software program firm Temenos, AMD, and Charles Schwab have all introduced expansions in Orlando in the previous couple of years.
Despite all of those strikes, it certainly not 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 mentioned. “Demand is concentrating in places and spaces with high degrees of accessibility, visibility, and access to amenities. And the supply in those markets is genuinely constraining: Only about 9% of office space in the Bay Area and major anchor cities was built 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.
For corporations weighing a relocation determination, the numbers in rising innovation hubs like Orlando or Nashville inform a compelling story. Nashville ranked amongst the high 5 U.S. markets for absorption-to-delivery ratios in 2025, with 35% of latest provide absorbed final yr, alongside New York, Charlotte, Seattle, and Phoenix. Class A rents sit at $43.52 per sq. foot, which is meaningfully under large-city charges however in area McCready describes as “genuinely competitive.”
Orlando’s emptiness price of 15.3% is properly under 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 response to JLL’s knowledge.
“You are competing for very little space against very deep-pocketed incumbents” in San Francisco, McCready mentioned. “Emerging hubs offer something increasingly rare: optionality. More modern inventory, more competitive rents, and—critically—talent pools that are growing, not just circulating.”
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
