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Census data shows a record number of adults under 35 are choosing to live with their parents rather than pondering the increasingly difficult calculus of living alone.
More than 25 million adults under 35 will be living with their parents in 2025, according to a June report from Realtor.com based on census numbers. This is the highest number ever recorded, including at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, when millions of young Americans returned to their parents’ nests.
“This means one in three 18- to 34-year-olds has moved back home to live with their parents,” said Hannah Jones, senior economist at Realtor.com.
The proportion of young people living with their parents was well below 30% at the beginning of the new millennium. It rose during the Great Recession, rose again during the COVID-19 pandemic, and then sawawed in the years that followed.
Why do young people return to their parents’ homes?
For several years during the pandemic, adults under 35 sought refuge in their parents’ homes to survive quarantine and escape the crowds of big cities, demographic experts say. Currently, young adults return to or remain in their parents’ homes primarily due to cost.
According to Realtor.com, the median home price is $430,000. This is 34% higher than 2019 home prices. The median asking rent was $1,673, an increase of 18%.
“Gen Z and Millennials generally want to buy a home. They want to be independent, but they feel it’s not accessible,” Jones said.
The idea of remaining in one’s childhood home well into adulthood carries a lasting stigma that suggests a failed start-up. Many Americans think this trend could be bad for society.
Young people face a tough job market. But most adults under 35 who live with their parents aren’t there because they don’t have a job. Realtor.com reports that 7 in 10 adults ages 25 to 34 who live with their parents are employed.
“This feels like a housing issue, not an employment issue,” Jones said.
Mortgage payments are rising. The same goes for rent.
Mortgage payments have skyrocketed in recent years, raising the bar for first-time homeowners.
From 2020 to 2024, the typical mortgage payment, adjusted for inflation, increased from $1,408 to $2,207, according to Bankrate. The surge reflects rising home prices and rising interest rates. Housing payments had been relatively flat for several years before the spike.
For young adults, Jones says, staying in their parents’ home is “a way to cut expenses and save more money,” working toward the ultimate goal of “buying a home at a younger age than if you were living alone and saving money on housing.”
It’s not just exorbitant housing costs that keep young people stuck in their parents’ homes. More broadly, researchers say rising mortgage and rent costs are preventing Gen Z and younger millennials from forming independent households.
According to the Urban Institute, from 2005 to 2024, the proportion of adults ages 25 to 34 who lived independently, renting or owning a home with a spouse decreased from 74% to 62%.
Meanwhile, the proportion of adults aged 25 to 34 who live with their parents rose from 12% in 2005 to 20% in 2024.
“They prefer to be in Mom and Dad’s basement,” says Jun Zhu, a clinical associate professor of finance at Indiana University and a non-resident fellow at the Urban Institute.
These trends are shrinking the market for first-time home buyers.
According to the National Association of Realtors, by 2025, first-time homebuyers will only account for 21% of all homebuyers, the lowest on record. The typical age of first-time buyers has risen to 40, an all-time high.
Couples are more likely to form a household
If you want to save money to buy your first home, it helps to have a second income in your household. However, Americans are marrying later in life. From 2008 to 2024, the percentage of adults ages 30 to 34 who are unmarried rose from 32% to 47%.
“You need almost two household incomes to buy a home,” said Krista Westrick Payne, associate director of the National Center for Family and Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.
“And if you’re not living with someone, you’re losing 40 to 60 percent of your household income,” she said.
Researchers see a strong link between postponing marriage and living at home among young people. Married couples are much more likely to own or rent their own home than unmarried couples.
Westrick-Payne said men typically marry about two years later than women. This may explain why men in their early 30s are almost twice as likely to live with their parents as women in the same age group, 16% versus 9%.
Westrick-Payne said her parents’ home is “a place where you can leave yourself until you get a better job, until you get an apartment, until you find a partner, until you find a roommate.”
Westrick-Payne said one overlooked factor in young people’s living arrangements is that they often serve as caregivers for elderly parents.
The oldest baby boomers are now 80 years old. Most baby boomers own homes, and many of them are very large. As you get older, you may need help with daily activities. Their children will help.
“I think in some cases, parents are more dependent on their children than we realize,” Westrick-Payne says. “And you don’t hear much of that in conversation.”
