Neighborhood & Housing
For members of the productive professional class, anything that isn't optimized can feel like an indulgence. It's why friction feels like warmth.
By Andrew Burmon
$1M Net Worth of Group Most Likely to Want to Move
50% Readers Open to Living in New York City
22% Readers Open to Living in Denver
71% Architecture Fans Who Like Their Own Neighborhoods
Our “Where Next?” survey explored how the Oat Milk Elite thinks about moving: not just where they might go, but what those choices say about class position, taste, and the trade-offs people are willing to make.
The results point to a group that is generally house-proud yet restless, with relocation plans shaped as much by personal aspiration and identity as by financial realities.
The results indicate that, speaking generally, w e are house proud, geographically skittish, and moderately discontent – a situation compounded by current mortgage rates, which have slowed movement and intensified our focus on whether a move will deliver cultural fit and status or, alternatively, a lifestyle upgrade.
Upon closer inspection, the data suggests (perhaps predictably) that housing attitudes reflect not only varied personal aspirations, but varied family aspirations.
Though neighborhood satisfaction is strongly correlated with net worth across most wealth brackets, people with a net worth of $750K-$1M – disproportionately coastal professionals with household incomes between $200K-$500K – were less fond of their neighborhoods and less likely to want to live in wealthy neighborhoods.
They were also much more likely than others to want to live abroad.
This specific group of white-collar grinders seems to be concerned about personal ROI on significant spend.
It's tempting to think that less wealth respondents would be more discontent, but that's not the case.
High-earners appear angry their earnings don't afford them a step up in housing.
Many of these people had mortgages that were taken out with low rates.
Due to increases in inflation, they were (and are) being paid to borrow money, which makes moving a financial dubious endeavor even though their life changes and circumstances have, in many cases, changed.
With few exceptions, respondents either wanted to live in the “Martini Cluster” (New York, Boston, London, Paris, and San Francisco) or the “Sweet Tea Cluster” (Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Raleigh, and New Orleans).
Respondents who favored coastal cities (and Europe) already lived in coastal cities.
Respondents who favored the southern and midwestern cities tended to live in those regions.
Most midwesterners just wanted to live in Chicago.
Also, Californians prefer San Francisco to Los Angeles (which seems nuts but to each their own)….
Many respondents seemed to unwilling to live in secondary or tertiary cities.
Their desire to live in larger, more expensive urban hubs may reflect a willingness to pay for access to both opportunity and culture – as well as a somewhat narrow understanding of what comprises culture.
The desire for unique architecture negatively correlated with the desire for low taxes – mediated by middle-income earners ($75,000-$149,999) desire for low-taxes and indifference to aesthetics as well design snobs’ strong preference for wealthy neighborhoods.
Interestingly, some 71% of those who reported caring about architecture expressed pride in
