“Kansas City offers everything you can get in some of the bigger cities without the big-city headaches,” said Christian Zarif, a real estate agent and Realtor®–a member of the National Association of Realtors®–with Better Homes and Gardens Kansas City Homes. “It’s got an affordable cost of living, affordable housing and it really doesn’t have the traffic problems of a lot of cities.”
Like many 18-hour cities around the country, Kansas City offers an outsized sense of culture for a mid-sized metropolis. “We have a full-time, full-blown symphony performing in a relatively new facility,” said Zarif. “The Sprint Center downtown hosts national artists and tours. We have pro football, baseball and soccer teams and both minor league hockey and baseball teams. We find that a lot of millennials are moving here for that culture, and then they’re looking for a job.”
Healthy economies are characteristic of 18-hour cities around the country, which is why many millennials are willing to move to them without necessarily having work lined up. Wilson landed her job before she moved to Kansas City, but her fiancé, 27-year-old Zac Brewer, did not. “It was a little intimidating,” said Brewer, who left a management position in a downtown Cincinnati hotel. “I loved my old job.”
ncG1vJloZrCvp2PEor%2FHoqWgrJ%2BjvbC%2F02eaqKVfqLNwrtGapZ1lk6S7r7HCrWanmaJktrW%2FjKmpoqWVYsGqucRmnaiqXWaFbrTOrqlmm5mptqa%2Fjg%3D%3D