40% or more of 18-29 year old people lived with a parent from 1900 to 1940, but that percentage dropped after WWII. But it has slowly crept back up to 44% in 2010 and 47% in February 2020 (and 52% in July 2020).
WWII probably normalized high school graduates moving away (military service or jobs making supplies for the military), and the post-war economic boom that was more widely shared across economic strata imposed fewer financial limits on young people’s mobility. But the economic trends in opportunity have been going the other way for young people in recent decades. COVID-19 sent more back to their parents on top of that.
We’re in that new majority. We invited our youngest (mid 20s) and his wife to live with us when she went remote for Covid. It’s far nicer (for all of us) to have spent Covid on our farm where we have plenty of room to roam than in their studio apartment in a city. They’ve also been able to save a lot of money. In the meantime, we’ve enjoyed the fellow game players, his gardening, housework assistance, and just general fellowship.
They will probably move on sometime, but not in the near future. We’re enjoying life together. When they leave it could be overseas, so I’m definitely enjoying what we have now.
My recent college grad is very likely to return home for a few years. That’s up in the air right now but she is more than welcome. Her job is in consulting so I don’t see any reason to spend money on an apartment she’ll rarely enjoy. Many of her consulting friends live at home too. Plus she’ll get to save a ton of money. We are a tight-knit family and she has an adult room here so she’s not itching to move out just to say she doesn’t live at home.
My 23 year old hasn’t lived home in years. However, his roommates graduated and aren’t signing the lease, his office has been remote since 3/20, so he’s moving back home in a week to save money, plus at least his high school friends are back as well working remotely.
My DD was out of the house (after quarantining with us) the day after virtual graduation. We have a very good relationship, and she would be welcome to live at home if she needed to to save money/regroup. She’s got a job, an employed boyfriend, and a desire to be out on her own. For a single child, this is actually a surprising development as we always worried she’d be too dependent. We miss her but know this is working for her right now.
Think of all the college students who lived at home this year because of Covid. I don’t think this trend number will be as high when all in person college learning is in place.
Most of the families I know with kids in this age group have had one or more of their kids come live with them for various lengths of time over the past year. If these young adults are working remotely and can’t do anything where they are living, it made sense to have them save their money and live with their parents.
Many in this age group are still in college, and with remote learning and closed dorms, they didn’t live on campus this year and lived with their parents instead.
I think these families did struggle with these decisions. Many of the kids who didn’t “come home” were living with their boy/girlfriend, and that was a factor in their living arrangement.
I think it has been particularly difficult over the past year for people in this age group. This is the age where they should be socializing with their peers and co-workers. Instead they have been isolated, stuck spending 24 hours a day in their apartments.
While COVID-19-related factors account for the 5% jump from 47% in February 2020 to 52% in July 2020, the 47% living with their parents in February 2020 is already on the high side compared to over a century of history.
Even if it goes back down to 47%, that is still a historically high percentage.
I think the increase in the cost of college leaves students with larger loans to pay. My kids are aggressively paying them down, and not having to pay rent helps a lot.
We loved having our 22-year-old daughter with us for nine months in 2020. And now it looks like she might stay in our area. I never thought that would happen! It’s great, because we can pay her to watch after the house and dogs when we go away. She earns some money and the dogs don’t have to go to the kennel.
My older D was in this boat. She finished student teaching in spring of 2017 and moved home while figuring out where she wanted to work. She ended up staying until she got married in the summer of 2020. Her her now-husband moved in with in September of 2019. It definitely made sense for them to live with use since he was a grad student for the 19/20 school year.
Having her/them here was great. Since she is a teacher it meant she was available to cook dinner all summer. In terms of finances, we had them buy groceries every other week.
Me too @compmom! Curious: Has anyone on this thread ever done that? Issues?
Due to the high COL and RE prices, we’ve been considering trying to pool resources to find real estate with one of our children: an MIL suite, or ADU/DADU (attached or detached accessory dwelling unit). We’re also only in their town 5-6 months of the year. Renting or buying for that length of time seems wasteful, but finding ever-changing home shares like AirBnB, would be a pain for the partial savings, and having to schlep or store stuff each time.
Seemed like a win-win. We apply what we would pay toward a rental or purchase to their mortgage. They can afford slightly more, and perhaps rent it out short term when we’re away.
They’re mildly interested - or perhaps being polite . But we haven’t found anything yet anyway.
My daughter moved in after graduating from college since the pandemic and couldn’t find a job. Well she ended up getting a great paying job, lived at home and put away most of her money. It was such a joy having her home. She now moved to Oregon for 6 months to sorta try out the area. Trust me, it was such a gift having her home. Now my son moves away soon to start his job. I have no issues having them around.
Interesting statistics, though the thought that keeps me lying awake at night is the 30-40 year old “failure to launch”. There are some good reasons why a 25 year old might rely on a parents’ house as home base while making a career transition or retraining. I think it’s OK as long as there’s some exit strategy.
In the SF Bay Area, housing is so expensive that it may also be a savvy way for someone with a good job to build savings. There are other situations in which the child is actually the one providing the housing, but that’s probably not too common for this age group.
I guess we’ll see if the pandemic year is a blip or a shift in fundamentals. I hope it’s the former, but it would take very different economic conditions to bring us back to the conditions 50 years ago.
This was happening before COVID, in the US and Europe as well. I read a book about this- I think it was titled “The Boomerang Generation.” I am sure COVID also increased the number of 18-29 year olds at home. And even older.
I am struck by the fact that so many here on CC have room for their kids to come home. I wonder how many are planning to downsize at some point.
My kids are 29+. I downsized a few years ago after selling my house and am trying to decide whether to stay in my town or move closer to my kids. At some point @kjofkw we have talked about an arrangement similar to what you describe, especially if there are grandchildren.
I actually downsized right after my D graduated high school. Her room in the new much smaller house doubles as the guest room. She has far less space than she had in our old house but it’s a very nicely decorated comfortable adult room that she got to help decorate and it will always be there for her.
We are probably outliers in that neither of our kids have lived with us since finishing college. D stayed in NYC, lived with her (then boyfriend) now husband until relocating to her current city about 3 years ago. S also stayed in the city he went to school in and had a job there.
S is here on a very temporary basis right now. He left his job recently and will be attending grad school on the other coast in a few months. This is the longest either of ours will have been home since college summer breaks.
I don’t have anything against the kids staying for awhile, it’s a great way for them to save up some money. Many of my friend’s kids did that for a few years, it just did not work out that way for us.
I have felt badly this year because my downsizing was to a small one bedroom apartment rental so I cannot provide safe harbor for my kids except on the couch.
And now it looks like she might stay in our area. I never thought that would happen! It’s great, because we can pay her to watch after the house and dogs when we go away. She earns some money and the dogs don’t have to go to the kennel.
. But we haven’t found anything yet anyway.