The suburbs were an escape from city life. Now, millennials want them to become more like cities.

Joseph Hajjar and his spouse had spent years living in big cities, anywhere they enjoyed the fast-paced manner and endless options for things to do. So whenever they decided to resolve in the suburbs and lift their two young daughters, they had a few non-negotiables.

"We had a spreadsheet going, and the towns that checked a lot of boxes were the ones alongside walkability and a fine eatery scene," Hajjar, 40, told Business Insider. "We were additionally looking for a powerful awareness of community."

They ultimately chose Summit, New Jersey, a small commuter suburb concerning 22 miles from New York City. They paid $1.4 myriad for a approximately 3,500-square-foot residence — far larger than their two-bedroom condo in Jersey City. It equal came alongside an upstairs attic they use to presenter guests, a yard, and a garden, features they could lone have dreamed of having in the city.

Sure, they're paying additional than whenever they were living in the city. But among the home's biggest perks is its proximity to Summit's historic downtown, anywhere the family can stroll to shops, cafés, and restaurants. It is additionally near to the train station, anywhere Hajjar's spouse catches the New Jersey Transit to activity in New York City.

"We lone wanted to do this once, versus buying a starter home," Hajjar said. "Summit has a lot of awesome stuff. There's a really fine YMCA correct downtown, so I can stroll to the gym. My spouse and I can have a date night and stroll into town."

For decades, group looking for a residence have faced a choice between two distinct lifestyles: either large, walkable cities affluent in "third places," gathering places exterior the residence and workplace, akin cafés and parks; or the additional self-contained, car-dependent suburbs.

As Americans location greater value on connection and convenience, residence buyers akin the Hajjars are asking additional of their neighborhoods — and, in turn, homebuilders are reimagining suburbia.

People desire to live in walkable neighborhoods alongside things to do

NAR's 2026 Community and Transportation Preference Survey polled 2,000 adults in the nation's 50 largest metro areas and established that 63% of respondents would pay additional to live inside strolling extend of parks, shops, and restaurants. When stated the choice between a larger lot that required additional driving and a smaller lot in a walkable neighborhood, 59% chose the walkable option.

Patrick Southern, a luxury genuine asset delegate alongside Serhant in New Jersey, told Business Insider that neighborhood amenities have rotate into an crucial deciding aspect for many buyers, particularly "millennials and Gen Zers in their mid to delayed 20s."

"They grew up in the suburbs, anywhere if they had to go somewhere, they got thrown in the rear of a position wagon and driven there," Southern said. "But following college, formerly they've lived in big cities, they cognition a norm of existence they don't desire to provision up. We're seeing that translate to young buyers in the suburbs, and developers are taking that into document in their planning."

Suburbia is getting a rebrand

Not all buyer can discover a suitable residence in an established, walkable downtown akin Summit's. Some developers are alternatively trying to build a awareness of community into newer, master-planned developments.

Unlike traditional communities, which are frequently built part by piece, master-planned communities are designed as a entire from the start. They can function akin mini-cities, alongside schools, restaurants, and amenities inside their boundaries. While there is no conclusive national count, Texas and Florida accounted for a bulk of the master-planned developments in John Burns Research and Consulting's 2025 Top 50 ranking.

At Sienna, a 10,800-acre master-planned community in the Houston suburb of Missouri City, Texas, homeowners can choose from townhomes, apartments, and traditional single-family homes priced from $250,000 to additional than $1 million.

Beyond their homes, residents additionally have admission to an gathering of third places dispersed throughout three amenity complexes: one alongside a social bar, fitness center, ballroom, blaze pit, playground, scatter pad, and pool; another alongside a refuge and coast club; and a third alongside a "tween hangout" featuring study space, commission and video games, and a pond table. There is additionally an on-site eatery and a lakeside amphitheater.

"Today's homebuyers are looking for additional than fair a home; they're looking for a lifestyle," Alvin San Miguel, Sienna's vice chairman and broad manager, told Business Insider. "Homebuyers have additional choices than ever, and amenities assistance create the awareness of location that sets a community apart."

Walkability comes at a price

There's fair one problem: walkable communities affluent in third places sometimes necessitate buyers to be, well, rich.

Jeff Speck, an municipal planner and partner at Speck Dempsey, an municipal scheme and consultancy firm, told Business Insider that neighborhoods alongside these features have rotate into "overvalued and frequently prohibitively costly for most people."

A 2020 Redfin analysis of nearly 1 myriad residence revenue throughout 16 US metro areas and two Canadian cities established that homes in walkable areas sold for 23.5% more, or $77,668 on average, than comparable homes in car-dependent areas. The study defined walkable areas as those alongside a walk score of 50 or higher — a measure of how effortlessly residents can complete regular errands on foot.

"People pay additional for walkable, amenity-rich neighborhoods since they preserve period and create mundane existence easier, and there are lone so many homes in those places," Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather told Business Insider.

"Plus, many group value the community awareness that comes alongside spots anywhere neighbors run into all other," she added.

Homebuyers acknowledge that walkability frequently comes at a price. In NAR’s 2026 Community and Transportation Preference Survey, 67% of respondents stated homes or apartments in walkable neighborhoods were additional costly than those in car-dependent areas; 31% stated they were much additional expensive.

"People's longing for third places has reached a breaking point," Speck said. "This is not fine news overall, but at smallest it has helped convince astute genuine asset developers to build mixed-use neighborhoods again."