Young adults are home sick but against their wishes

For decades, it’s been an unspoken belief that moving out is a rite of passage, well now it’s starting to look like a privilege. In the US, the number of young adults aged 18–34 who lived with their parents has climbed to 33%, hovering near pandemic-era highs, as per the census data of FinanceBuzz. That number has jumped since 2010 when it was only 30% marking a steady but decades-long increase with little sign of reversing. 

And the trend isn’t subtle at all, and geography only sharpens the divide. For instance, in high-cost regions like New Jersey, the share crosses 44%, while at the same time in Puerto Rico the percentage is at 58%, a stark reflection of how housing costs dictate independence. 

A glance across the Atlantic and it's not any different, even there the pattern holds. In the UK, the number of 25–34-year-olds who are living with parents has increased from 13% in 2006 to 18% recently. That’s an addition of roughly 450,000 more young adults to the family home, per BBC reporting on Institute for Fiscal Studies data. Even the drivers and symptoms are uncanny: rising rents along with the situation of house prices outpacing incomes are the reasons.  

The issue isn’t just about delay in adulthood or how the norm of moving out after eighteen is being completely debunked, it’s more structural in nature, and the numbers are beckoning to a financial squeeze.   

Over the past decade, 1.5 million people under 35 are living with their parents, setting a 6.3% increase and growing faster than the young adult population itself, according to The Conversation. The math behind reveals the reason for this phenomenon: rents have risen roughly 4% annually, while wages have been trailing, managing to crawl up just 0.6% a year. Even further out of reach is the attainment of homeownership. Median house prices have surged 90% in 10 years, and this has pushed the typical first-time buyer’s age up to 38.  

Now faced with this predicament, moving back home becomes less of a choice and more of a financial strategy. Almost half of parents report having a “boomerang” child aged 18–35 return home, per a survey cited by the New York Post.  But that strategy of moving home comes with trade-offs and downsides. Only 46% of those who moved back home showed top budgeting skills, compared to 63% who never returned home, hinting at stalled financial independence. In other words, young adults aren’t staying home because they want to; they’re staying because the alternative keeps getting further away.