Young Adults Are Shacking Up With Parents At The Expense Of Homeownership

The number of young adults in the U.S. that are shacking up with their parents, siblings or other family members reached close to 40 percent in 2015, marking the largest percentage since 1940.

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, which is based on an analysis of census data by Trulia, the online real estate firm, even though the economy and job market are improving, the number of people between the ages of 18 and 34 living with their parents or family members has been on the rise since 2005. Before the recession in 2005, one out of three lived with family. In the past, when the economy improved, the young adults would venture out on their own, but that isn’t happening this time around, WSJ reported. As a result of all the generations living under one roof, the paper reported there is less demand for housing than would be thought among millennials, which are now the biggest group in the history of the U.S. The number of households owned by adults that are younger than 30 increased by 200,000 over the last decade, despite the fact that the number of adults under the age of 30 has grown by 5 million.

“I don’t think those are challenges that are going to keep young households permanently out of the housing market, but it may keep their homeownership rate near historic lows for likely the indefinite future,” said Ralph McLaughlin, Trulia’s chief economist, in the WSJ report. The paper noted that young people living with their parents reached 40.9 percent in 1940, a year after the Great Depression ended, and fell to 24.1 percent, marking a low in 1960. From the 1980s to the middle of the 2000s, the rate stood between 31 percent and 33 percent.