The rate of young adults who are still living at home with Mom and Dad has greatly increased over the past decade. But, despite what you may think, it isn’t the recent grad who has just moved back home and is desperately trying to put their recently purchased earned degree to good use. Instead, it is actually the older individuals in the generation, the George Costanzas and Robert Barones of the world, that are driving the increase in young adults living at home.
In 2005, 28.2 percent of young adults aged 18-34 lived with a parent. But in 2012 that increased to 33.5 percent, a level at which it has remained relatively stable ever since, Zillow reports. In 2005, 47.8 percent of adults between the ages of 18 and 25 lived at home and 10.3 percent of adults between 26 and 34 lived at home. By 2012, these totals were up to 55.5 percent and 12.9 percent respectively.
Since 2012, however, something interesting has happened. The share of 18-to-25-year-olds living at home has actually started to decline while the share of 26-34-year-olds has continued to climb. The 18 to 25 age group has dropped to 54.2 percent while the 26 to 34 age group has increased to 14.5 percent.
Part of the reason may be that the younger half of the generation is more likely to live with roommates in less-expensive, lower-quality housing. Additionally, the times at which they graduated from college are much better in terms of job prospects than their older peers.
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