Study: Migration of millennials from New Jersey about the same as in past

A new study finds millennials in New Jersey are not fleeing the state at a greater rate than young people in the past.

Cliff Zukin, a professor at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, said 18- to 39-year-olds are the most likely to move out of state, but only a small percentage of them leave.

“We had 6.1 percent of New Jerseys who left, but we also had 5.5 percent who came in,” he said. “So there’s always churn in young people moving in and out of the state. And we’re not different than other states, and we’re not that different from other generations.”

Evan Friscia, a graduate student at Rutgers who worked on the study, said millennials have the same concerns as most other residents — property taxes, the high cost of living, and the transportation infrastructure.

“A lot of things are spoken about millennials that are just assumed without any sort of factual basis. And what I would take away from this report is that now we have some information to kind of base some of these policy decisions on,” said Friscia.

Brandon McKoy with New Jersey Policy Perspective said millennials are living with their parents longer because of student debt.

“This really requires the state investing in these issues and making them a priority,” he said. “State investment in education is down. State investment in housing is down.”