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Majority of citizens don’t want to leave cities: Poll

A majority of citizens don’t want to leave cities during the pandemic, according to the Harris Poll. Yahoo Finance’s Sarah Paynter shares the details.

Video Transcript

ADAM SHAPIRO: Turning our attention back to economic matters-- mortgage rates actually fell to record low 3.06% last week. That was according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, which says applications for mortgages rode a 6.8% last week. So this may not help younger generations of people who are right now having trouble paying their rent or their mortgage payments, let alone getting a mortgage, because of the pandemic. Let's bring into the stream Yahoo Finance reporter Sarah Paynter, who's going to give us the latest from a Harris poll and Yahoo Finance poll about where Americans stand on home ownership and rents and these issues they're confronting through the pandemic. Sarah.

SARAH PAYNTER: Hi, yeah, thank you. So one of the most important findings that we got from this Harris poll is a shift in narrative. Back in May, a lot of city dwellers were saying that they wanted to leave New York City. We had about 40% at that time saying that they would like to move to the suburbs or rural areas. Now, redoing this poll in beginning of August, that dropped to about only 26%. So we're seeing a lot of people much more likely to stay in place and to not be following this trend of fleeing the city as we originally saw.

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ADAM SHAPIRO: Sarah, when you talk about these trends and you talk about people staying in cities, there is a trend, though, for younger people to still look to leave cities. What's that about?

SARAH PAYNTER: Yes. So among those who wanted to leave, young people ages 18 to 34 were the most likely group. And that's because younger people are more mobile. They're more likely to just be renters. And so it's not as difficult to move locations. There's also an ongoing trend among that millennial and Gen Z population that has a preference for suburbs.

We've been seeing a lot of younger people trying to move out into a less crowded area and have more space, and that was true even before the pandemic. And so the pandemic has certainly amplified those feelings of wanting extra space. And so we're seeing among young people, twice the likelihood to want to move out.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Yeah, a lot of that, though, I imagine too is younger people tend to have young children. They need the space so the kids can play in the yard. Sarah Paynter, Yahoo Finance reporter, thank you very much.