The recent 2010 Census confirmed something that we have observed for a while now. Many of our middle-aged friends are seeing their college-aged kids moving back home. And it’s the economy. They can’t find work – or cheap housing – so they move back to their parents’. My own 22-year old daughter is living with her mom.
With unemployment extremely high – 12.4% officially here in California – and even higher among college aged young people – our youth cannot find the means to make their own ends meet. The economy is that bad.
And check out the rates – there’s nearly a 20% uptick in households that are “doubling up” with adults. And most of the increase is from the kids who never moved out or who have moved back in after college. (This phenomenon has been occurring for sometime now, and we aren’t the only ones who have noticed.)
Here’s the msnbc report:
Census: It’s crowded at Mom and Dad’s
By Patrick Rizzo / msnbc.com / September 13, 2011
Buried in Tuesday’s report from the Census Bureau on the growth of the nation’s poverty rate was a tidbit that had far-reaching connotations for the housing market and the broader economy: The kids are still at home.
The number of households “doubling up” by adding an additional adult who is not in school, a spouse or cohabitating partner rose to 21.8 million in 2010 from 19.7 million in 2007, prior to the recession. In percentage terms, doubled-up households rose to 18.3 percent in 2010 from 17 percent in 2007.
Apparently, most of the increase came from young people who either never moved out of Mom and Dad’s or moved back in after college because they couldn’t find work. According to the bureau, 5.9 million people age 25 to 34 lived with their parents in the spring of 2011, vs. 4.7 million in 2007.
Now why is that a problem for housing and the economy? If young people aren’t moving out and forming new households either on their own or after getting married, then they aren’t buying houses and filling them with appliances, furniture, potted plants, cats, dogs and Pamper
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My 26 year-old sister and her 30 year-old boyfriend recently moved into my dad’s house, putting another rental property on the market while taking a prospective tenant out of it. Give it another few months and I’ll seriously consider subletting a room to my mother-in-law if she doesn’t move back in with her parents first – and she’s in her 50s while they’re almost 80. Just saying the cohabitation thing doesn’t just apply to failed college grads…
One good solution that I used and will suggest to my children……GRAD SCHOOL.
Getting paid to go to school while living like a student and partying every weekend is a great choice.