City or suburbs? It’s a life, lifestyle question

Here’s an idea, millennials. What if we switch? You take the too-big houses. We boomers are about ready for cool urban apartments.

You take our overstuffed basements and extra bedrooms, where you’ve left us with your old bicycles, school projects and prom dresses. We’ll do a downsize shuffle, shedding stuff for the cultural rewards of urban life.

A swap was my first thought when I read about young city dwellers heading with their kids to the suburbs.

Two economic or housing experts have recently made nearly identical — and pretty amusing — comments about the impracticality of city life for young families. Both were quoted in articles by Jim Davis, editor of The Herald Business Journal.

“The people who are loving apartment or condo living today are young and childless. They’re going to have children and they’re going to change their attitude,” said Bill Conerly, an Oregon-based economic consultant, at the Lynnwood Convention Center, where Economic Alliance Snohomish County presented its annual forecast March 19. “Walking down to the bar every night is a little more challenging when your toddler isn’t allowed into the bar,” Conerly said in the March 20 article, which had the headline, “Will the apartment boom go bust?”

The other Herald Business Journal article, “Why home builders flock to one Puget Sound-area hot spot,” focused on young families migrating to new homes in the North Creek area, between Mill Creek and Bothell. And again, a housing expert raised the specter of a little kid in the big city — an image of a tot hanging out on downtown streets outside of bars.

“Contrary to popular belief, you cannot allow your 5-year-old to play at the corner of Fifth and Pike,” said Todd Britsch, referring to downtown Seattle in the story, which also was published in Monday’s Herald. Britsch, regional director for the housing industry firm Metrostudy, spoke about an exodus to the suburbs. “These millennials who love living in Belltown close to the bars and close to their jobs — when they have children they’ll begin to migrate to the suburbs.”

Funny, both men mentioned access to bars, rather than museums, concerts, theater, restaurants or cultural diversity, as the big draw city life has on millennials.

Young families are flocking to North Creek, where Britsch said new home prices are lower than in Bellevue or Redmond. Much of the area is part of the well-regarded Northshore School District. According to Metrostudy, North Creek saw 616 new home sales in 2014, more than anywhere else in Snohomish or King counties.

So what about an old switcheroo to bring baby boomers into the city? Not so fast, you older moms and dads. Despite the North Creek boom, not all young adults are ditching cities for the ’burbs.

I have also read about millennials choosing urban life. A March 24 Associated Press article featured Seattle’s Jenny and Michael Kelly, who are raising their 2-year-old daughter in a Pioneer Square loft apartment. Jenny Kelly helped start a group called Parents for a Better Downtown Seattle. Citing the Downtown Seattle Association, the AP story said the number of kindergartners through eighth-graders living in the city’s core jumped almost 30 percent between 2007 and 2012.

On Monday, the Newsweek website published an article titled “Why Millennials Still Move to Cities.” It said that although technology would allow many workers to live anywhere, a U.S. Census study shows millennials aren’t moving to suburbs at the rate their elders did.

Choosing where to live is more complicated than city vs. suburb. Among deal makers, or breakers, are household budgets, commute times and school choices, but also personal preference. Where — and who — do you want to be?

For my millennial daughter’s young family, it’s a house — neither big nor new — in Seattle. For me, it’s still the old house in Everett where my kids were raised.

Swap? It is fun to think about some snazzy urban space. I promise, I wouldn’t let the grandkids play outside a Belltown bar.

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.