Some of the biggest myths about millennials and their lifestyle preferences are that they all want to be car-free in urban areas, with public transportation and car-sharing options, and they still can't afford to get married or buy their own homes, single and renting or living at home. But it looks as though millennials are finally growing up, having kids, moving to the suburbs, and "becoming their parents," even if they don't know it yet — or have the choice.

A while back, Forbes reported in "Millennial Boomtowns: Where The Generation is Clustering (It's Not Downtown" that the majority of millennials (those currently aged 20 to 29) aren't living downtown, or even in the top 10 major cities, as many assume:

"Like most of America, the millennials are far more suburban, more dispersed and less privileged than what one sees on shows such as “Girls” or read about in accounts in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Reality is often more complex, and less immediately compelling, than the preferred media narrative. But understanding the actual geography of [millennials] may provide a first step to gaining wisdom about how to approach and understand this critically important generation."

Competition for jobs from baby boomers reluctant to retire, being priced out of top urban metro areas by international investors, as we see here in Boston, and simply the freedom of telecommuting is giving millennials more expanded options, including living in suburbs and smaller cities where the cost of living is more accessible. Clickhole explores the plight of these 'up-and-coming millennials, among those hit hardest by the sluggish economy, looking for the next affordable, undiscovered city to settle in,' which we explored in more depth in our 2015 Millennial Predictions and list of The New Best Cities for Millennials.

What's most surprising to many is which cities have seen the largest increases in their millennial populations, and how young people choose where to live, recently explored by both Yahoo! news and US News & World Report.

"It is dogma among greens, urban pundits, planners and developers that the under 30 crowd doesn’t like what Grist called 'sprawling car dependent cities," Joel Kotkin writes for Forbes. "Too bad no one told most millennials. What [actually] emerges...is a  picture of a millennial America that does not much mirror the one suggested in most accounts. The metro areas with the highest percentages of millennials tend, for the most part, to be not dense big cities but either college towns — Austin, Texas; Columbus, Ohio, for example — or Sun Belt cities."

Cities like Charlotte, NC have seen their fair share of millennial transplants, and the Charlotte Observer reports that despite their preference for mass transit, millennials are embracing cars as a tradeoff to the lower overhead and higher quality of life available in these smaller cities. Millennials — also known as Generation Y — accounted for 27 percent of new car sales in the U.S. last year, up from 18 percent in 2010, according to J.D. Power & Associates. They’ve zoomed past Gen X to become the second-largest group of new car buyers after their boomer parents. Millennials are starting to find jobs and relocating to the suburbs and smaller cities, where public transport is spotty.

"The millennial generation is a diverse bunch, but there are a few common threads that tie them together," writes Nicole Schreck for US News. "Millennials often value experiences and look at their lives in a different way than previous generations did — and they're certainly not afraid to shake things up. In fact, according to a recent Rent.com survey of 1,000 U.S. renters ages 18 to 34, nearly half say they moved to a city other than the one they grew up in."

Those experiences include not waiting any longer to become parents due to the "suspended adulthood" that has plagued their generation, and the Washington Post recently debated what will happen to cities when millennials have kids and the suburbs beckon.

"Previous generations mostly moved to the suburbs, and there is evidence that many millennials also want to live in suburban single-family homes, even if they live in cities right now. Picket fence and all. But in urban planning circles, there is a burgeoning movement to figure out how to better accommodate young families before they depart."

One thing is for certain as millennials reach parenthood: For investors, their money is on the 'Burbs, according to Business Insider.

"Especially in the older millennials, we're seeing a move towards more traditional patterns, just on a delayed time frame," said Sarah House, an economist at Wells Fargo. "A generation that's been stereotyped as urban, single, and aghast at the idea of a car-based life in the suburbs is starting to age, prompting fund managers to bet on companies that should benefit if the U.S. birth rate reverses a six-year slump. With 4.3 million millennials turning 30 this year and the number set to jump to 4.6 million by 2020, there will soon be more adults in their early 30s than at any other time in U.S. history, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data."

April Lane is a freelance writer.