Nearly Half of All Young Adults Live With Mom and Dad — and They Like It

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"Moving out and living on your own is often seen as a marker of adulthood. But dealt an onerous set of cards — including pandemic lockdowns, decades-high inflation, soaring student debt levels and a shaky job market — young people today are increasingly staying put. What’s more, it’s no longer seen as a sign of individual failure.

Almost 90% of surveyed Americans say people shouldn’t be judged for moving back home, according to Harris Poll in an exclusive survey for Bloomberg News. It’s seen as a pragmatic way to get ahead, the survey of 4,106 adults in August showed.

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“We're in an economy where it's harder to live independently,” said Carol Sigelman, professor of social psychology at George Washington University. “Adults recognize that it’s tough these days.”

Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020 drove the share of young adults living with parents or grandparents to nearly 50%, a record high. These days, about 23 million, or 45%, of all Americans ages 18 to 29 are living with family, roughly the same level as the 1940s, a time when women were more likely to remain at home until marriage and men too were lingering on family farms in the aftermath of the Great Depression.

For many, the American Dream is more like an American illusion, with nearly three-quarters of those surveyed saying younger people are stuck navigating a broken economic situation that prevents them from being financially successful.

Millennials who graduated into the 2008 financial crisis had also questioned their ability to be independent, with many temporarily living with their parents before getting back on track. The majority of millennials are now homeowners themselves. But for Gen Z, it’s unclear if they too are experiencing a delayed milestone or if a broader swath of the generation is getting left behind.

@lillianzhang_
Living at home vs moving out after college — what are your thoughts? #livingathomeinyour20s #postgrad #postgradlife #aftercollege #livingathome #livingathomewiththeparents #personalfinance

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A trend toward financial nihilism is also impacting the way younger generations work, invest, spend, and choose to live, said Jason Dorsey, president of the Center for Generational Kinetics. Look no further than the wave of young people saying no to college, quiet quitting, and accepting that living at home with mom and dad is the new normal.

On TikTok, young people unabashedly share videos of working remotely in childhood bedrooms or eating dinner at home with their parents. That includes a highly paid worker in tech attempting to get ahead, a college grad playing catchup after Covid-19 lockdowns set her career back, a mid-career professional tired of climbing the corporate ladder and more.

The following are their stories.

Burnt Out
Naomi Alvarado felt she did everything right. She went to the University of Texas at Arlington and majored in business management, a decent-paying field. She interned, started her career and moved for a better job opportunity. And yet, at 27, she finds herself in between jobs, living with her parents in El Paso, Texas.

“People my age were being fed this dream that you could go to college, get a job in corporate America and buy a house. That dream is unattainable,” she said.

i feel a lot of things, but Peace is over powering all emotions. ❤️ i’m so grateful for this time to be at home"

I think a lot of older people, specifically boomers and the Silent Gen people still living (most of them in our government) don't seem to realize is that things for younger millennials, Gen Z and probably Gen A aren't the same as they were for you guys. Especially boomers. Boomers got everything handed to them by Silent Gen and then they pulled up the ladder and said "F*you" to Gen X and Millennials.

My oldest brother joined the Army at 19. He stupidly listened to a friend and got out after 3 years and stayed in Florida. Things didn't work out for him. He came back home and lived with our dad for a bit to get himself on his feet again. My dad let him and he had to pay his share of bills. My dad has always said we are welcome to come back whenever we need to.

Parenting doesn't necessarily stop at 18. You don't stop being a parent at 18. I'm not advocating people let their kids mooch off them forever. No. There's a difference between enabling your children and helping them.

My daughter will graduate at 17. If she decides she doesn't want to go to college right away, oh well. She'll have to get a job (and probably will have one by then anyway) and contribute sure. But I'm not just tossing her out the minute she turns 18. Hopefully I can instill in her enough sense and values that she'll be able to take care of herself once she does leave. The only way she wouldn't stay with me is if she's like her dad - actively using drugs (which realistically will probably kill her as she's on meds from her transplant for the rest of her life), if she's not working, stealing, etc. Then no I wouldn't.

Some cultures, it's just this way. When we lived in Hawaii, there were many families that were multi-generational. Lots of benefits, our family has been doing the multi-generational living since 2010. It has some drawbacks, but the benefits outweigh the cost, at least in our home. We have four generations (12 people) in our farm home. Everyone contributes where they can.