49% of Young Adults Living With Parents as Costs Climb

Younger Americans are increasingly residing with their parents to offset the high cost of living.

That’s according to a report Saturday (July 4) from The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) which says that the notion of a twenty-something still living at home has gone from a sign of “failure to launch” to an indicator of wise financial decision-making.

“Everything is just out of reach,” said 28-year-old Megan Talley, who lives with her mother in the Atlanta suburbs. If a young person wanted to live on their own, she added, “you could do it, but you would be dead broke at the end of the month.”

Last year, 49% of American adults under 30 reported living with a parent, compared to 37% in 2019, the report added, citing the Federal Reserve’s latest Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking. Close to a third of that group were 25 or older.

However, some economists say the figure is lower, as the Fed didn’t delineate between children living in their parents’ homes and parents who live in their children’s homes.

Either way, WSJ added, young people say that living at home doesn’t have the same stigma it once did due to affordability issues. Rather than hiding their lives as “stay-at-home daughters” or “stay-at-home sons,” they discuss it on social media.

Samantha Stobo, 33 and living with her mother in Miami, told WSJ that posting about her living situation on TikTok has earned her supportive comments from others in the same position — while also providing some extra income.

“No one ever judges me,” she said. “The conversation tends to be more like, ‘That’s awesome, and I bet you’re saving money.’”

PYMNTS wrote about some of the financial struggles facing younger Americans last month: Rising costs are leaving them to work harder at managing their money, even as fewer consumers say their coping strategies are succeeding.

That is one of the clearest takeaways from the new PYMNTS Intelligence report “Generations Under Pressure: How Younger Consumers Are Coping With Higher Living Costs.”

“The broad finding is familiar: More than half of consumers still say daily living expenses are a challenge. The more revealing part is how generations are responding,” PYMNTS wrote. “Younger adults are stacking tools and tactics like layers of blankets against a chill, while older consumers are more likely to rely on fewer moves or take no action at all.”