Not so empty nesters: record-high number of US adults under 35 live at home, new data says

A record number of the US’s young adults were living with their parents last year, according to new data from Realtor.com, as high housing costs pushed the milestone of independent living out of reach.A third of young adults between the ages of 25 and 35 – 25.2 million people – were living with their parents in 2025. Of those, 70% had jobs, and many held college degrees, highlighting that the increase in at-home living stems from high housing costs rather than labor market conditions.The national median asking rent is 18% higher than pre-pandemic levels, while the national median home listing price is 34% higher, according to data from the real estate company.“Every adult still in a childhood bedroom is a household not formed, a lease unsigned, a starter home unpurchased,” said Hannah Jones, a senior economist at Realtor.com.The latest data reflects how the US economy, particularly since the pandemic, has proved especially difficult for young people and recent college graduates. Roughly 40% of recent graduates are underemployed, meaning they are working jobs that do not require a degree. College graduates have experienced higher rates of unemployment than all other workers since 2020, a reversal in a longstanding trend. And many young people are reporting deep economic turmoil, from finding a job to progressing in their current one.Rapidly rising inflation also recently hit a three-year high, wiping out a year’s worth of wage gains, according to data released last week from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which could delay the prospect of moving out for a young adult even further. inflation jumped to 4.2% in May, as the war in the Middle East led to surging oil prices.Even though many young people may be saving thousands by not paying rent and living at home, they may also be delaying first-time home ownership, which is still a key driver of household wealth, Jones said. The typical first-time buyer is now 40, she added.This trend also has implications for the not-so-empty nesters. Parents may be forced to delay their retirement, push out plans to downsize their homes, or minimize their savings, Jones added.And beyond the social, emotional and financial implications of living at home, the increase in young people living with their parents has deepened the country’s housing market woes. Fewer adults engaging with the starter home market means there is less turnover in that market, Jones said, tightening an already limited supply and deepening the affordable housing struggle for young people.Analysts at Realtor.com studied the rates of young people living with their parents starting in the early 2000s to compare them to recent years, and found that if co-residence patterns from earlier decades had persisted, 4.86 million fewer young adults would be living with their parents today.The data is “not super surprising, just because we know what’s been going on with housing affordability”, said Jones. “But it is very striking when you compare it to the early 2000s and what the norms were. We’re going from 27% to 28% to 33%.”Employment rates among this age group have also held steady over the past several decades, Jones added, highlighting that “this is really a housing story”.“This isn’t that young adults don’t have jobs and have to move home,” she said. “It’s that they do have jobs and yet living at home is the most viable financial option for them … It’s not that these adults don’t have any means, it’s that they don’t have any opportunities.”