These days, housing affordability is a struggle for nearly everyone.
But for young adults just starting out, soaring home prices and sky-high rents have become one of the greatest obstacles to making it on their own.
Nearly one-third, or 31%, of Generation Z adults live at home with parents because they can’t afford to buy or rent their own space, according to a recent report by Intuit Credit Karma that polled 1,249 people age 18 and older. Gen Z is generally defined as those born between 1996 and 2012, including a cohort of teens and tweens.
“The current housing market has many Americans making adjustments to their living situations, including relocating to less-expensive cities and even moving back in with their families,” said Courtney Alev, Intuit Credit Karma’s consumer financial advocate.
Overall, the number of households with two or more adult generations has been on the rise for years, according to a Pew Research Center report. Now, 25% of young adults live in a multigenerational household, up from just 9% five decades ago.
My plan was to leave the HCOL area I’m in for a number of LCOL places. Kept waiting for the official OK from my job to move as I work remote. By the time they gave me that OK, housing prices doubled in every place I was looking, and the rates got jacked through the roof. It’s not even that much cheaper to live out there. I feel stuck renting my slightly under market small 2 bedroom duplex unit. I light $3k on fire every month to do so. I hate it, and wish I could move back in with my Mom.
Do you know what we were paying for a large 2 bedroom in the NoHo Arts District (relatively nice area) of Los Angeles in the '00s? $1400 a month. We moved to a much less desirable area around 2010, but it was an actual house, and we were still paying only $1500 a month. We left L.A. the next year. I don’t even want to know what the rent on either of them is now.
I burn $4500 every month and have little choice given work locations. Most of the units are empty and the corporate landlords are colluding to fix prices. I’m a single issue voter on affordable housing.