Housing

Urban Living Might Just Survive Coronavirus

Early data from real estate websites suggest cities haven’t lost their allure, even at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
Cities have increasingly attracted college-educated adults in their 20s and 30s. Coronavirus doesn't appear to be stopping the trend.Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg

“How will cities survive the coronavirus?” a New York Times opinion writer recently asked. “Can New York avoid a coronavirus exodus?” the Financial Times chimed in. Since the beginning of the pandemic, many have predicted the demise of U.S. urban living — where physical proximity is the norm, social distancing complex, and lockdowns in sometimes cramped apartments decidedly uncomfortable.

A new report by City Observatory researcher Joe Cortright, made available as an interactive dashboard, suggests that such hand-wringing may be premature. Searches for urban properties on real estate website Zillow increased in 29 of the 35 largest U.S. metropolitan markets in April, compared with April of last year. Data from another website, Apartment List, show that more people were looking to live in New York City during that same month, the darkest one in terms of lives lost in New York, and much of the northeastern U.S.