[This article has been published in Restoring America to highlight how younger Americans are bucking urban dwelling for rural areas with established communities.]

As COVID-19 restrictions lift and cities attempt to stem the population and commercial losses they have sustained over the past two years, many urbanists are still banking that the historic, well-documented trend of young adults flocking to big cities — for careers, social lives, and cultural amenities — will continue and be instrumental in renewing and reviving urban centers. While city leaders, pundits, and various urban stakeholders alike want younger cohorts of Americans to return to cities, survey research has repeatedly documented that these critically important younger Americans actually show greater interest in suburban life than dense city living, though this fact is not being treated as seriously as it should.