A global trend amplified by us "Millenials" in the U.S. is a preference for urbanisation. Contrary to past generations, I don't plan on ever giving up the pace and energy of the metropolis.
Thus our (and my) psychological shift could be explained as simply as a preference for the hyper-connected urban lifestyle, with decreasing home and car ownership flowing from that change in preferences rather than a direct change in beliefs about cars or houses. Either way, the symptoms look set to persist.
> I don't plan on ever giving up the pace and energy of the metropolis
Until you have kids, and you see how most urban school districts are run. This is the same reason our parents left the city and moved to the burbs. Things are not really as different now as we think.
Though now there is a huge opportunity to reduce the cost and drastically improve K12 education. If our generation can break the entrenched bureaucracy of public education, then I would say urbanization in the US could be more than a consequence of Gen Y being poor and delaying starting a family.
The thing with age that young(er) people will never believe is that you change. It really doesn't matter what you think or believe now. It is unlikely to remain constant for 20 years.
Or rather, his living in NYC particularly has a lot to do with his age, social status and preferences. People like him prefer big cities because they don't want to own cars. So it's the other way around.
That's a pretty bold generalization. "People like him" prefer big cities for a lot of diverse reasons, most of which are probably not that they do not want to own a car. Not needing to own a car is a result of the convenience of a big city--having everything you need within walking/transit distance. That is the reason I live in NYC.
As far as I am concerned the single biggest thing we as a family have done to improve quality of life is to arrange things so that my wife and I both walk to work and our son can walk to school.
Living or working in the 'burbs is absolutely not an option for our household. The reason is quite directly that we don't want to be reliant on a car.
And wanting to not be reliant on a car is a big part of the reason I moved into the city in the first place. I did the calculation many years ago, and figured out that even from a purely financial perspective it's better - the rent's higher, but cars are impressively expensive to own, fuel, and maintain. And there are a bunch of other financial perks. Living within walking distance of numerous bars saves a mint in cab fares, for example. (Not to mention that suburban taxi service tends to be an enormous PITA.)
Your lack of desire for a car has a LOT more to do with living in NYC than your age or social status. You sound just like friends of mine from NYC.