A record 25.2 million adults under 35 lived with their parents in 2025, a recent Realtor.com report shows.
That’s one-third of the nation’s 75 to 80 million young adults out of a total population of 341.8 million last year.
The real estate website cited pandemic-era surges in college debt and housing costs as drivers of this “new normal.”
The study noted that 70% of Americans aged 25 to 34 held jobs last year, substantially unchanged since 2000.
“Something about their income level, debt load, or the cost of housing in their market is keeping them home despite steady employment,” said report author Hannah Jones, Realtor.com’s senior economist.
Ms. Jones noted that the median home price hit $430,000 last year, up 34% from 2019, and the median rent price rose 18% to $1,673 a month over the same period.
She also blamed “more widespread student debt” for driving up the share of 22-year-olds living in their childhood homes after college — from 46% before the pandemic to 49% last year.
Several outside analysts said the findings confirm their observations since the COVID-19 public health emergency began in 2020.
“More young adults are employed, educated and still unable to afford independent housing,” said Buz Artiano, owner of BuildX, a custom home construction company in Massachusetts. “Rents, home prices, insurance, utilities, and borrowing costs have all made the first step into independent living harder.”
Diggz, a New York City-based roommate and rental search platform, estimates that its average apartment seeker is over 31 years old, up from 27 five years ago.
“For some, staying with their parents is the only way to build savings before moving out,” said Rany Burstein, Diggz’s founder. “Others use roommate housing as the next step toward independence because living alone simply isn’t financially realistic.”
Brad Wilcox, a senior fellow at the conservative Institute for Family Studies, said the trend encourages a “Peter Pan syndrome” of young men who have grown comfortable living in their parents’ basements.
He noted that a February study published by the institute found two-thirds of young adults were not seriously dating, reflecting a lack of motivation to become independent.
“There are too many boys in the basement playing video games while working only part-time or intermittently,” said Mr. Wilcox, a sociology professor at the University of Virginia. “That means more single, childless and unhappy people.”
Sociologists note that younger generations have increasingly delayed the traditional adult milestones their parents took for granted — including graduation, marriage, homeownership and parenthood.
“Having a job is no guarantee that the job is stable and adequately paying, and many have student debt, so many young Americans just can’t afford even an entry-level home,” Christian Smith, a sociology professor emeritus at the University of Notre Dame, said in an email. “This is one part of a larger disengagement of post-Boomers from ’the American dream’ that further erodes social cohesion and solidarity.”
Shifting norms
Analysts say soaring living costs have outpaced stagnant wages since the pandemic.
The Milken Institute, an economic think tank, estimates that 67% to 69% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, reflecting a spike in young adults taking temporary, flexible or project-specific gig jobs.
“Adults in their early 30s today came of age during the COVID-19 pandemic, and many who moved back into their family home during that period never fully transitioned back out, even as the economy recovered,” said Cheryl L. Evans, a Milken financial security expert.
She noted that the median age for a first marriage has increased to 31 for men and 29 for women.
Psychologist Sabrina Romanoff, a New York City-based relationship expert at the Hily dating app, said young adults have become likelier to splurge on a $15 cup of coffee than invest in a home or relationship they can’t afford.
“They are making less, and life is costing significantly more,” Ms. Romanoff said. “We’re observing a prolonged adolescence, as young adults leave home for college, but then return, often coming back to familiar roles they occupied in the family as children.”
In March, the Bipartisan Policy Center estimated that half of all bachelor’s program graduates between 2012 and 2021 were underemployed a year later, working off their school debt in low-paying jobs that did not require their degrees.
Of that group, nearly 3 in 4 remained underemployed a decade after graduation.
Experts say recent technological advances have added to these pressures. They point to generative artificial intelligence killing entry-level office jobs that graduates traditionally filled.
“Young adults can earn degrees online, interview virtually, work remotely, build professional networks digitally and maintain friendships without ever leaving home,” said Stephanie Bilderback, an Austin Peay State University management instructor who studies Gen Z workplace habits. “That convenience has tremendous advantages, but it also reduces many of the external pressures that encouraged earlier independence.”
No turning back
The recent Realtor.com findings suggest the surge of young adults living with their parents will not reverse soon, even if the job market improves.
The report found that the share of 30- to 34-year-olds living with parents rose from 7.1% in 2000 to 11.4% in 2019 and 12.7% last year.
Over the same period, it rose six percentage points among those ages 25 to 29 to 20.4%.
The biggest pandemic-era change occurred among young adults in their early 20s. The share of 23-year-olds living with their parents jumped by 5.7% from 2019 to 2025, while the share of 24-year-olds increased by 5.6%.
“They simply live in an economy where the first steps toward independence became very expensive,” said Hana Ben-Shabat, founder of the generational research firm Gen Z Planet.
Brook McKenzie, a licensed family counselor in Dallas, said it’s become essential for parents not to keep paying for their adult children.
“Families need clearer expectations,” Mr. McKenzie said. “If an adult child is living at home, there should be agreed-upon responsibilities, contributions, timelines, and goals that move them toward greater independence rather than greater comfort.”
Parents should also give adult children an extra kick out the door, said Alex McFarland, an evangelical Christian theologian based in North Carolina.
“Financial success may be difficult, but it is still possible,” Mr. McFarland said. “Part of the blame is on parents who have meant well but smothered their kids and not really helped them realize they can do life.”
