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A record number of young adults live with parents. Why?
Daniel de ViséUSA TODAY
July 11, 2026, 5:04 a.m. ET
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A record number of adults under age 35 choose to live with their parents, Census data shows, rather than contemplate the increasingly tricky math of living on their own.
More than 25 million under-35 adults lived with their parents in 2025, according to a June report from Realtor.com that draws from Census figures. That’s the highest number on record, including the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which sent millions of younger Americans back to the parental nest.
“That means one in three 18-to-34-year-olds is back at home, living with their parents,” said Hannah Jones, senior economist at Realtor.com.
The share of younger adults living with parents hovered well below 30% in the early years of the new millennium. It rose in the Great Recession, spiked again during the COVID-19 pandemic, and has seesawed in the years since.
Why are young adults returning to the parental home?
In the pandemic years, demographic experts say, under-35 adults retreated to parental homes to ride out quarantines and escape big-city crowds. Now, younger adults are returning to parental homes — or remaining there — mostly because of cost.
The median home lists at $430,000, according to Realtor.com. That’s 34% higher than home prices in 2019. The median asking rent is $1,673, an 18% increase.
"Gen Z and millennials, by and large, want to buy homes. They want to be out on their own, but they feel that it’s not approachable," Jones said.
The notion of remaining in your childhood home well into your adult years carries an enduring stigma, suggesting a failure to launch. Many Americans think the trend might even be bad for society.
Young adults face a challenging job market. But most under-35 adults who live with parents are not there for lack of a job. Among adults aged 25-34 who cohabit with parents, 7 in 10 are employed, Realtor.com reported.
"This feels like a housing issue, not an employment issue," Jones said.
Mortgage payments are soaring. So are rents.
Mortgage payments have soared in the last few years, raising the bar of entry for first-time homeowners.
From 2020 to 2024, the typical mortgage payment rose from $1,408 to $2,207, after adjusting for inflation, according to Bankrate. The spike reflects both rising home prices and elevated interest rates. Housing payments had stayed relatively flat for several years before that jump.
For younger adults, staying in the parental home is "a way to cut down on costs, save more money" and work toward an ultimate goal of buying a home "younger than they could if they were living on their own and saving for housing," Jones said.
Prohibitive housing costs aren’t just trapping younger adults in parental homes. More broadly, spiraling mortgage and rent costs have hindered Gen Zers and younger millennials from forming independent households, researchers say.
From 2005 to 2024, the share of adults ages 25 to 34 who lived independently, renting or owning a home with a spouse, declined from 74% to 62%, according to the Urban Institute.
Meanwhile, the share of adults aged 25-34 who lived with their parents rose from 12% in 2005 to 20% in 2024.
"They prefer to just stay in mom and dad’s basement," said Jun Zhu, a clinical associate professor of finance at Indiana University and a nonresident fellow at the Urban Institute.
Those trends are shrinking the market of first-time homebuyers.
First-time buyers represented only 21% of all home purchasers in 2025, a record low, according to the National Association of Realtors. The typical age of a first-time buyer climbed to 40, an all-time high.
Married couples are more likely to form households
If you want to save money to buy your first home, it helps to have a second income in your household. But Americans are marrying later. From 2008 to 2024, the share of adults aged 30 to 34 who had never married rose from 32% to 47%.
"You almost need two household incomes to purchase a home," said Krista Westrick-Payne, assistant director of the National Center for Family & Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.
"And if you’re not living with somebody, you’re missing out on anywhere from 40 to 60% of a household income," she said.
Researchers see a strong link between younger adults postponing marriage and living in parental homes. Married couples are much more likely to own or rent their own homes than their never-married peers.
Men typically marry about two years later than women, Westrick-Payne said. That could explain why men in their early 30s are nearly twice as likely to live with their parents as women in the same age group, by a ratio of 16% to 9%.
The parental home is "where you park yourself until," Westrick-Payne said, "you get a better job, or until you get an apartment, or until you find a partner, or until you find a roommate."
One overlooked factor in younger-adult living arrangements, Westrick-Payne said, is the caregiving roles they play for aging parents.
The oldest baby boomers are turning 80. Most boomers own homes – often very large homes. As they age, they may need help with everyday life tasks. Their children can provide the help.
"I think in some cases, and more than we might realize, the parents are dependent on the child," Westrick-Payne said. "And I don’t really hear that in the conversation."
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