There are old people, but they mostly stick to their routines. You may have better luck privately renting than with one of these huge rental companies. We were able to buy while interest rates and prices were still low. Rent was a lot lower prior to the pandemic then shot up to New York prices. We moved right before I turned 30 and have been mostly happy with it.
My spouse transferred with a large company and I did freelance for a while until an old boss from New York contacted me to work remotely for him. I find many more people are self employed here than I did in NY so thats something to consider. While there are cons, I tend to see a lot of negativity on these boards.