More Than Half of College Graduates Are Moving in with Parents, Instead of Renting, Survey Finds – NREI


With apartment rents continuing to rise, Generation Z members are more likely to move back home than to their own apartment.

More than half (54 percent) of young people about to graduate from college plan to move back home to live with their parents, according to a new report from Apartment Guide.

“As recently as a few years ago, it was almost embarrassing to move back home with your parents,” says Brian Carberry, managing director for Apartment Guide, headquartered in Atlanta. “We’re seeing that as an increasingly viable option for college graduates.”

Apartment Guide’s report is just the latest evidence that young people are taking longer to form their own households—instead, living for longer periods with roommates or with family. The cost of housing continues to rise—particularly for the class-B apartments where young people often sign their first lease. Young people who delay moving to their own apartments may save money that allows them to afford better housing once they do eventually live on their own.

“In the short term, expect more Gen Z-ers to move back home, at least temporarily, in order to save money and prepare for the future,” says Carberry. “As a result, household formation may be delayed for a larger portion of the group.”

Young people navigate costly housing markets

Nearly a quarter (26 percent) of all renters are people in the 20s or early 30s who live by themselves, according to new research by RealPage Inc., a provider of property management services and software, which based its estimates on about 8 million individual lease transactions in market-rate apartments. These “starting-out singles” have a median annual household income of just $36,000. Most rent small units—785 square feet is the typical size—in class-B properties.

Article by
Bendix Anderson | Aug 13, 2019