From the mid-2000s via the late 2010s, San Francisco was a magnet for younger graduates pushed largely by Internet 2.0 and the cellular tech increase. It was a cool metropolis that boasted high-paying jobs and promised a breezy West Coast life-style.
However prior to now 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 special life-style; then they steadily drifted towards Texas and Florida, the place jobs have been plentiful and hire was extra manageable. In reality, a survey by world structure agency Gensler confirmed almost 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 through which youthful generations are transferring to “welcomer cities” like Nashville and Orlando.
JLL now defines Nashville and Orlando as “welcomer” cities as a result of they nonetheless provide loads of company job alternatives, however are extra inexpensive than massive cities.
“Particularly, Nashville’s outsized cultural presence and Orlando’s favorable tax coverage make them highly effective magnets for expertise,” Travis McCready, head of industries, leasing advisory at JLL, advised Fortune.
McCready identified “welcomer” cities total have a web migration fee of 5.2% over the previous three years, whereas “anchor” cities like New York and the Bay Space grew simply 0.6% from migration over the identical time interval.
What this additionally means is “welcomer” cities like Nashville and Orlando are actually legit contenders within the innovation economic system, in accordance with JLL, which tracks expertise migration, workplace market dynamics, and company funding throughout 135 cities globally.
Will “welcomer” cities stick?
Particularly prior to now few years, Gen Z has been flocking to extra inexpensive cities simply to get by through the cost-of-living disaster. Except for locations like Texas and Florida, many have made strikes to the Midwest, the place houses are about 30% cheaper than the coasts.
A 2025 ConsumerAffairs evaluation of U.S. Census Bureau and Federal Monetary Establishments Examination Council (FFIEC) knowledge discovered that seven of the ten most accessible metros for younger householders are within the Midwest. Unsurprisingly, California dominated the checklist of the least inexpensive metro areas for Gen Z.
A cost-of-living comparability by Flats.com reveals the price of dwelling in San Francisco is 80.6% larger than in Orlando, and housing costs are 226.2% larger. In contrast with Nashville, San Francisco’s price of dwelling is 66.3% larger, and housing is almost 150% dearer.
“The pull components that drew individuals to affordability- and lifestyle-oriented cities [like Nashville and Orlando] aren’t prone to disappear, and folks have constructed lives, purchased houses, and put down roots in these markets,” McCready stated.
Company migration additionally reinforces why youthful persons are transferring. In 2024, Oracle introduced plans to determine what it referred to 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 realm, with Tennessee state leaders providing a $65 million financial grant to assist offset prices. (Though current studies recommend Oracle is struggling a bit to draw employees to its workplace.)
Starbucks additionally just lately introduced it will debut a company hub in Nashville, which might reportedly be 250,000 sq. toes, or massive sufficient for as much as 2,000 workers, in accordance with CoStar.
“With these progress plans, we see Nashville, Tennessee, as a great location to open an workplace and set up a extra strategic presence within the Southeast area of the U.S.,” Starbucks COO Mike Grams stated in a press release.
In Orlando, Journey + Leisure made the choice to relocate its world headquarters downtown—a transfer McCready referred to as “a sign value listening to.” Boston-based cybersecurity agency SimSpace additionally moved its headquarters to Orlando this yr, and world banking software program firm Temenos, AMD, and Charles Schwab have all introduced expansions in Orlando prior to now couple of years.
Regardless of all of those strikes, it on no account suggests cities like San Francisco or New York are useless. It simply means they’re competing extra now with mid-size markets.
“What we’re seeing in established hubs like New York and the Bay Space is a restoration, however it’s extremely selective,” McCready stated. “Demand is concentrating in locations and areas with excessive levels of accessibility, visibility, and entry to facilities. And the provision in these markets is genuinely constraining: Solely about 9% of workplace area within the Bay Space and main anchor cities was constructed after 2020.”
“So even firms that need to consolidate in San Francisco or New York are competing for a really skinny slice of actually fascinating area,” he continued.
The workplace market math
For firms weighing a relocation choice, the numbers in rising innovation hubs like Orlando or Nashville inform a compelling story. Nashville ranked among the many prime 5 U.S. markets for absorption-to-delivery ratios in 2025, with 35% of recent provide absorbed final yr, alongside New York, Charlotte, Seattle, and Phoenix. Class A rents sit at $43.52 per sq. foot, which is meaningfully beneath large-city charges however in area McCready describes as “genuinely aggressive.”
Orlando’s emptiness fee of 15.3% is nicely beneath 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 Space, the place solely about 9% of complete 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 accordance with JLL’s knowledge.
“You’re competing for little or no area towards very deep-pocketed incumbents” in San Francisco, McCready stated. “Rising hubs provide one thing more and more uncommon: optionality. Extra fashionable stock, extra aggressive rents, and—critically—expertise swimming pools which can be rising, not simply circulating.”
