More Young Adults Are Living at Home

More North American young adults (or younger adults) are saving money by living at home, according to census reports. U.S. Census Bureau figures reported over the last few weeks show that the number of adults in the 25- to 35-year-old age range still living at home with their parents has risen since 2008. In Canada, the most recent information is older, but shows an increase in adults ranging in age from 20 to 29 living with their parents. As a result, household sizes in both countries are increasing -- and families in both the U.S. and Canada are turning to self storage, and to professional organizers, to help them handle the resulting increase in clutter.

In 2008, 12.7 percent of U.S. adults in the 25- to 35-year-old age bracket lived with their parents. This year, 13.4 percent do. As a result, the average U.S. household size has increased from 2.56 people to 2.59 people. Monster.com’s 2010 Entry-Level Job Outlook Survey shows an even greater increase -- 52 percent of recent college graduates in Monster’s survey said that they are living with their parents, as compared to 40 percent in 2009.

Fortunately, despite the stereotype -- and the resulting storage problem -- most parents of stay-at-home kids say that they are happy with the arrangement. Canadian sociology professor Monica Boyd says that is because there’s been a change in societal attitudes toward live-at-home adults.

“Your kids may be doing it, but the kids down the street are also doing it, so it’s not seen as a failure to launch. Thirty, forty years ago it was a rare enough event where it was kind of weird,” Boyd told The Montreal Gazette. “We’ve had a sea change.” In fact, she says, it is becoming unusual for twenty-somethings not to live at home.

About 21 percent of Canadians feel that it is fine for adult children to live at home, while about eight percent say they would never tolerate it.

“There is this argument that you leave home for marriage, that you don’t move out on your own,” Boyd explains. “It’s almost as if it’s an insult: ‘Why wouldn’t you want to stay with your parents? Your parents can offer you advantages, they can help you.’”

There are still some disadvantages to living at home, especially when it comes to dating, according to recent Michigan State University graduate Jon Gunnells, who told WalletPop that living with his parents was destroying his love life.

“It’s weird to bring someone home to watch a movie,” Gunnells told WalletPop, “because you just met the girl and now she will inevitably meet your parents, see your baby pictures on the wall and have to listen to your mom ask her 43 questions about where she’s from and where she works.”

While a trend toward more young adults living at home is a good thing for the professional organizing and self storage industries, it may not be such a good thing for retail businesses: consumers who are sharing space tend also to share televisions, refrigerators, and other large appliances, so sales of home appliances and home furnishings may drop over the next few months.

Sources used:

“Cramped quarters: as children postpone their departure, households get larger.” The Economist. Sept. 30, 2010.

Kent, Steven. “Save money by living at home, but dates may be sparse.” WalletPop blog. Oct. 5, 2010.

Proudfoot, Shannon. “They may have ‘boomeranged’ or ‘failed to launch’, but don’t call them dysfunctional.” The Montreal Gazette. Oct. 5, 2010.