About Living At Home With Your Parents

Jayson Massey
Nov 2 · 3 min read

Here’s something I wrote to a blogger about a post he wrote. — Jayson

I am writing you in response to “FS Newsletter: The Mystery Of Adult Men Living At Home With Their Parents”. First, full disclosure on my part…I live with my father. It saves me money. I also lived in my car when I worked in the Bay Area. Being practical was forced on me.

Now, you start this newsletter with “One of the things I fear most is raising my son to be highly dependent on me and my wife well beyond the age of 25.” Let’s look at the statistics.

Per the Census Bureau, “a third of young people, or 24 million of those aged 18 to 34, lived under their parents’ roof in 2015.” However, only “1 in 4 young people aged 25 to 34 living in their parents’ home (about 2.2 million) neither go to school nor work.” It seems that more young people are living with their parents in general. The Census Bureau has a full report on this trend.

One young man wrote about his journey from his parents’ house to financial success: Neil Patel. Others, like the folks who follow entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk, are following the same blueprint. Also, note that wages are way higher in the Bay Area, so even a simple job, like a part-time package handler at FedEx, where I worked for a while, pays over $17 an hour, 23% over the national average.

Here’s another problem. You live in San Francisco, where the median house price is almost $1 million. And according to Zumper, San Francisco is the most expensive place to rent in the world, having a one bedroom apartment rent for, on average, $3,530. Not only does it make more sense to live with parents in this case, renting an apartment and sharing it with five of your closest friends might not even be possible.

You put in the chart that shows more single women buying. One, single women’s salaries are rising faster than single men. Two, where are they buying? Not San Fran. According to The Balance, “most single women spent less than $200,000 on a home in 2017”.

By the way, I was a real estate agent. I did sell to several single men. One bought a four-unit as an investment. Another purchased the best deal in town. Almost 3,000 square feet of house for one single guy.

It may be that his parents will have to move in with him at some point. In fact, there is a chart for that from NAR:

Many home buyers purchase to house multiple generations, either parents or children. Here’s another thing to consider. You stated that “the percentage of single female buyers is 2X-3X greater than single male buyers across various age ranges.” If you’re looking at this with a multigenerational lens only, does it makes sense for a person with a single-income to purchase a house?

You may say that buying is better than renting. Maybe. One single lady I know rents in up-and-coming neighborhoods. She gets the benefit of cheap rent, being around people she enjoys, and once the neighborhood prices her out, she moves. She also gets the flexibility to go off and work in different cities rent-free. If she goes on tour for three months, she can just pack up and go. No pesky mortgage to pay.

Lastly, regarding sharing an apartment…I’d rather just sleep in my car. Higher ROI.

SOURCES:

A Third of Young Adults Live With Their Parents, Census Bureau

https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2017/08/young-adults.html

Home Buyer and Seller Generational Trends, National Association of Realtors

https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics/research-reports/home-buyer-and-seller-generational-trends

Zumper National Rent Report: November 2019, Zumper

https://www.zumper.com/blog/rental-price-data

More Single Women Are Becoming First-Time Home Buyers

https://www.thebalance.com/single-women-buy-homes-too-1798358

The Rise of the Single Female Homeowner, U.S. News and World Report

https://realestate.usnews.com/real-estate/articles/the-rise-of-the-single-female-homeowner

Why Every Entrepreneur Should Live With Their Parents, Forbes

https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilpatel/2016/11/10/why-every-entrepreneur-should-live-with-their-parents/#4c935fe36200

#AskGaryVee Why It Might Be Better to Live With Your Parents, YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay8N2QcpOpo

FedEx Salaries, Glassdoor

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/FedEx-Salaries-E246.htm

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