Almost 60% of young adults have moved back home at some point, but they don’t see it as a failure to launch. They see it as financially savvy.
That the path to full independent living is increasingly an ongoing process, strewn with periods of moving out and then back in, is the conclusion of a new survey from storage solution company SpareFoot, which surveyed 981 Gen Z adults and young millennials.
“The boomerang generation is no longer an outlier, but the norm,” writes SpareFoot senior content manager Maggie Stankiewicz.
The survey finds that 58% of young adults—or 3 in 5—who moved away from home later move back, including 15% who have done this multiple times.
But adult children aren’t just moving back home. Unlike previous generations, when living with parents past a certain age carried a distinct stigma, these “kids” aren’t ashamed about their living-at-home status.
They moved home—and aren’t sorry
According to the survey, 3 in 4 young adults say living with family or in transitional housing (often with a roommate) is a “smart financial strategy,” not a setback, and 26% declared they moved home to deliberately save money.
A vast majority of the respondents—62%—said the harsh stigma around moving back home has faded compared with previous generations, and 63% say they personally no longer feel embarrassed or judged about their living situation.
Other financial reasons that young adults say they aren’t flying the coop just yet are waiting for the right income level or salary (38%), reaching a specific amount of savings (23%), and paying off existing debt (13%).
Unsurprisingly, the trend of adult children living at home is more pronounced in expensive areas.
While the most recent U.S. Census figures found that 33% of individuals aged 18 to 34 live with their parents, it is even higher in pricey states like New Jersey (44.1%), Connecticut (41.3%), California (39.1%), Maryland (38.5%), and Florida (36.6%).
Real estate agent Jenna Hoyas of Douglas Elliman sees this scenario playing out in costly San Diego, where the median rent is a staggering $3,100 a month, and the median home list price is $933,325, both well above the national norm.
“In high-cost markets like Southern California, buyers and their families are making thoughtful financial decisions based on long-term goals rather than societal expectations,” she tells Realtor.com®.
She says homebuyers are increasingly seeking out properties that can accommodate adult children, such as a house that has a bedroom with a private entrance, or a first-floor guest suite, a finished bonus room, or a multigenerational layout. (Once the adult kids finally manage to move out, it isn’t uncommon that the grandparents then move in.)
“Many Gen Z adults are facing a very different affordability landscape than previous generations,” she says. “Between high rents, elevated home prices, student loan obligations, and the challenge of saving for a down payment, moving back home has become a practical financial decision for many families.”
“If living at home for a period of time helps someone save for a down payment, avoid excessive debt, or purchase a home sooner, many view that as a smart financial move rather than a setback.”
Financial services company Thrivent surveyed 2,325 adults across the U.S. and came up with similar results. Nearly 30% of young adults (ages 18-35) said they had moved back home at least once, with an even higher proportion (32%) saying they had never moved out.
Top reasons these young adults returned to the fold included the 34% who wanted to save for a down payment on their own home, 22% who want to build emergency savings, and 13% who are paying off student loans.
Despite over one-third saving for a down payment on a house, 30% of young adults who haven’t bought a home yet say they don’t expect to ever purchase one, due to the high costs.
It likely won’t surprise anyone that the main factor driving them back home to begin with is unaffordable housing (45%), which came out ahead of even job loss or reduced income (36%).
“Moving back home is no longer a failure to launch; in many cases, it is a rational financial strategy,” agrees Katrina Romatowski, founder of ReSpace, which builds co-housing living quarters in expensive cities like Seattle.
In fact, Romatowski tells Realtor.com she has experienced the boomerang effect herself.
“We’ve had three adult children return home for periods of time to save money and figure out what comes next,” she says. “ReSpace was created for exactly this changing reality: Homes need to support flexible, multigenerational living without forcing everyone into one undifferentiated ownership box.”
What about the parents?
While it might be a no-brainer for young adults who can’t afford to live on their own to move back in with mom and pop for a while (or even forever), it’s not necessarily a financial win for the bill-paying adults.
Finances are impacted for nearly half (47%) of these adults, with many “willing” to cut personal spending (43%) and personal savings or retirement contributions (19%) or delaying major purchases (36%) to make boomerang living work.
“When adult kids move back home, starting with the ‘why’ is crucial,” Thrivent financial consultant Gene Elder tells Realtor.com. “What’s the purpose of this season—saving for a home, regaining stability or paying off debt? The time spent at home can be a significant kickstart toward these goals.”
In other words, parents are willing to make short-term sacrifices to help their children’s long-term goals.
The key to not letting this dynamic affect the family negatively is to have open conversations. If the young adults move home to save money or pay off debt, then that is what they should be doing.
“Transparent conversations at the beginning of this arrangement, along with consistent check-ins along the way, are crucial in setting up both young adults and parents for success,” says Elder.
More than half (55%) of boomerang parents expect this type of arrangement to last at least a year.
But that leaves them much more optimistic than the “kids” themselves, as 1 in 4 felt that it was “not likely” that they would move out within 5 to 10 years.
