52% of the Young Adults in the US are Living With Their Parents
Worse than the Great Depression.
Pew Research Center recently published a new report about young adults — 52% of young adults are living with one or both their parents in July. This is higher than any previous measurement. The previous highest measurement stands at 48% in the 1940 during the Great Depression. 48% of the young adults lived with their parents. The peak could be higher during the 1930s. However, we don’t have any records of the said period.
Pew considers 18–29-year-olds as young adults. 26.6 million young adults are now living with their parents. A 2.6 million increase in count from February. A majority of the group comprises adults aged between 18 and 24, according to Pew. 2.1 million of the 2.6 million young adults belonged to the age group 18–24.
Pew noticed that the number of young adults living with their parents has grown across the board for all major racial and ethnic groups, men, women, metropolitan and rural areas. Over the past decade, White young adults were less likely to stay with their parents than their Asian, Hispanic and Black counterparts. This gap has narrowed since February, as more White young adults have moved in with their parents, than those from other ethnic groups.
Among one in ten young adults reported temporary or permanent relocation because of covid-19 outbreak. About the same percentage had someone move into their house. Among the adults that moved in due to the pandemic, 23% of them reported moving in because their college campus was closed. 18% of them said it resulted from a loss in a job or a financial loss. The share of 16–24-year-olds who are neither enrolled in school nor employed has increased from 11% to 28%.
Many major news networks attribute this increase to covid-19. The economy has been waning over the decades, and the increase did not happen overnight. Earlier in February, before the pandemic affected any institution, 47% of young adults lived with their parents. In the 1960s, a little over a decade after the Great Depression, only 29% of the young adults lived with their parents. The pandemic is only a facade for the increase. We were already approaching similar percentages to the Great Depression.
The Major Problems Behind the Increase
The waning economy and inflation are the major causes of this increase
A user from Reddit reported:
“My dad’s house cost him $20,000. My house cost me $400,000. And it’s not like wages have gone up 2000% in the last 30 years…
In a single generation we’ve transitioned from a society where a guy flipping burgers could buy a house to one where two people working good jobs can’t. It’s not just the price of homes either — it’s everything that went up with it: the down payment, property taxes, and insurance also increased proportionately. By the time you’ve paid the mortgage, utilities, insurance, property taxes, maintenance, etc. you’re easily at $3000 some months for a basic home.”
As they mentioned, the wages haven’t caught up with the inflation over the past 30 years. And it is ridiculous that many households with two white-collar employees find it hard to afford a house. The prices in many metropolitan cities are unimaginably high. Many other redditors reported vast increases in prices of their ancestor’s properties. Most of them can’t afford to buy their parent’s properties.
High Student loans are the new normal
Most students find it hard to afford an apartment. They have to choose between student loans and rent. It’s almost impossible to afford insurance, car payments, and gas along with the rent. The high rents affect the lifestyles of the youth.
For almost the entire 20th century and the early 21st it was easy for most young adults to go to college or get a full-time job, and live on their own. It was something anyone could do at even a young age. American culture developed around it being a sign of maturity. It’s the next step in life and the American Dream after owning your own car.
It also plays into dating. Much like how highschool guys find it embarrassing to get a girlfriend without having a car in the US, lots of young men believe it’s an embarrassment to be dating someone as an adult but not have their own place. However, with the debts piling so high, the American dream is slowly dying.
Very little savings
With the increases in basic expenses, it has become hard to have any savings at all. In 2018, almost 28 million non-elderly people were uninsured for medical expenses in the US. Medical costs are at an all-time high. Insurance stands as a necessity in the 21st century. It’s not hard to imagine people with little savings.
With such minimal savings, it’s hard to stay independent — when finding jobs is especially hard. Most of the youth burn through their savings in two to three months. It’s hard to last any longer with the increased costs.
Deserted properties
Many foreigners and rich citizens buy condos by the dozen. They treat the condos as appreciating assets. They do not give a fair share of their properties for a lease.
This decreases the available houses to move in, and increases the demand for them. Especially in metropolitan cities, it becomes extremely difficult to afford rents. Even with 5 percent of the houses being deserted, it significantly shapes the demand for housing. With no laws to prevent empty houses, this problem will only become bigger.
We are seeing a return to the multi-generation family and an end to the nuclear family. Only the wealthiest will be able to afford the luxury of a nuclear family and the costs associated with it. It truly is a luxury and was never the norm until the mid-20th century.
The mid-20th to the end of the 20th century is going to go down as one of the most abnormal times in human history, powered by massive innovation in government, finances, technology, and central banking. But all the low hanging fruit got gobbled up, and so we shouldn’t expect to see the same again, at least in America this century. This problem should be an immediate issue to be taken up in the upcoming election.
