Lag Time

A meme one still sees pop up on social media states that in the US an unprecedented 52% of adult children under age 35 are living with one or both parents according to a Pew study. This was true when the study was done in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, but that was an anomalous year for a variety of reasons. It is no longer true. Since then the percentage has fallen back into the mid-40s, though that is still high by historical standards. 25% of those 25-34 are currently living with one or both parents (compared to 9% in 1971) as are 58% of those in the 18-24 range. Although the current numbers are high for both men and women they are higher for men: 40% of men 25-29 live with parents.
 
On average young people start “adulting” (which has made it into the Oxford English Dictionary as a verb) later than they did decades ago. Consider my parents’ generation. My parents met in high school in 1943, married in 1947 at ages 21 and 19, and built their first house in 1949. Their kids (Boomers) moved slower and stayed single longer, but still were likely to be married in their mid-20s and to own a first home well before 30. I personally was a laggard Boomer, waiting until past 30 to buy my first home, so I’m not intending to be judgmental about this. Despite my personal experience, however, the centerline of the bell curve has shifted significantly in subsequent generations. The average age of first marriage in the US from its low point in 1960 has risen more than 8 years and is now 28.6 for women and 30.6 for men… and that is for those who get married at all. Only 45% of American adults of all ages currently are married, down from 50% as recently as 2015. I’m focusing a bit on marriage because it forces adulting on people whether they like it or not. Singles do buy properties (as I did) and strike out on their own, but they don’t feel the same time pressure about it. (I didn’t.)

My parents working on their house 1949

Unsurprisingly, the primary reason younger adults give for still living at home is financial. The top 20% of earners in their 20s are doing spectacularly well – better than in any generation ever before. Their parents overwhelmingly are in the top 20% of earners, too. (The 20-percenters also tend to marry each other, and at rates that look more like the 1960s than the 2020s, which reinforces the income divide.) For the rest, however, getting a footing can be a struggle. Even if they somehow avoid debt (few do), housing costs, auto costs, and insurance costs are daunting. The sense of independence that comes from renting or owning one's own space has to be balanced against the expenses that might keep you from ever accumulating any savings at all.
 
How does this compare to, say, 1949 or even 1969? In so many ways the country was economically a freer place then. Zoning laws were lenient. Many codes encouraged what we now would call low to moderate income housing – the classic postwar modest ranches and Cape Cods. Occupational licensing, where it existed, was not there to create a barrier to entry but simply to have something that could be suspended if someone misbehaved – most were available just by paying a fee. Professions that now require a college degree (before 1950 only 5% of Americans went to college) required only a high school diploma, if that. What Millennials and Zoomers lack most of all is that kind of freedom. It is harder to enter or change careers, harder to open businesses, and harder to buy a home. Younger people really do need more time and money to emulate what earlier generations did. Housing in particular in real terms is far more expensive. Even if one thinks these sclerotic current economic conditions are good for other social reasons, one has to acknowledge they exist and have consequences.
 
As for putting off marriage or forgoing it altogether, that is much more than an economic choice. The reasons for this trend are many, but the unintended effect is to delay the average age for a first home purchase (for those who purchase instead of rent), which has lifestyle consequences. A delay is not necessarily a mistake. The financially sensible thing may well be to delay rather than rush into an investment you really can’t afford. If that also means delaying fully growing up, at least by the judgment of elders, so be it. You’ll be forced to adult soon enough, one way or another.
 
A less commonly explored topic is how the presence of adult children affects the parents, personally and in terms of financial security. I don’t really know the answer, but suddenly I feel the urge to search the subject.
 

Pyschostick – Adulting