Millennials and Gen Z Forced Back Home: 52% of 18- to 29-year-olds live at Home with their Parents, the Highest Percentage Dating Back 120 Years.

Younger Americans face a daunting jobs market. Covid-19 has crushed the employment market especially with entry level positions and internships which are typically used as platforms into full-time career opportunities. The Class of 2020 has graduated into the worst economy in modern history. While some sectors in the economy are hiring, these jobs are a small portion of the overall economy that needs to provide opportunities to millions of recent graduates and those without college degrees. So it comes as no surprise that a record number of young Americans are now living at home. In fact, in 120 years of record keeping, we are now at the highest percentage on record – 52% of those 18- to 29-years-old are now living with their parents. That is a stunning number and has implications for the next decade of our economic growth.

Covid-19 Pushes Adult Kids to Live at Home

The Great Recession and inflated housing prices had already pushed many younger Americans back home. The number of young Americans living at home is at a record level:

This has downstream implications as well:

-How many will purchase a home?

-When people buy homes, they normally furnish it with expensive household items: fridges, sofas, etc.

-This also has implications on marriage and forming families

What we are seeing is new home buying slowing down while those with equity, for example baby boomers, are buying and selling homes at a brisk pace even in the face of the pandemic. The real estate market is being driven by older Americans, not younger Americans which is usually the case in a healthy economy.

You also have the headline grabbing challenges of student loan debt. Some $1.7 trillion in student debt is outstanding in the US. That is an incredibly high number of debt that many young Americans are carrying so moving back home with parents might be a chance to pay some of this down.

Why This Matters?

This matters in many ways because the future of our economy and how our nation develops is largely with our younger generation. What does it say that we give baby boomers a preference when they had an economy with low college tuition, plentiful jobs, a roaring middle class, and affordable healthcare? Now we seem to have college tuition at astronomical prices, middle class jobs are hard to get, and healthcare costs are out of control. Yet somehow, we still had enough to bailout Wall Street to the tune of billions of dollars yet again and somehow find it difficult to cut some slack to our younger generation in the face of this crisis.

We have some incredible challenges ahead and younger Americans need to be vocal in this discussion. Many politicians are only looking out for their own pocketbook and those businesses they have a connection with. It is time we look for supporting economic prosperity for the future generation of Americans.

If you enjoyed this post click here to subscribe to a complete feed and stay up to date with today’s challenging market!