They’re the nest generation.
Gen Zers and young millennials aren’t flying the coop. They’re living at home with their parents in greater numbers than any generation in recent history.
54% of Gen Z are choosing to live with their parents given the current economic climate, according to a new report of over 300 adults ages 18 to 25 conducted online by the Harris Poll and commissioned by DailyPay, a financial services company. A recent Pew Research Center study found that one quarter of US adults ages 25 to 34 were living in a multigenerational family household in 2021. But in comparison, in 1971, just 9% of adults of the same age were living in a multigenerational home, while in 2011, roughly 20% were.
While inflation and the overall state of the economy are driving the trend, another Pew study, from 2020, found that there was an even greater percentage of 18- to 29-year-olds living with their parents than there were during the Great Depression. Some young adults readily admit that they’re just not ready to adult.
“Like, I don’t know how people live on their own right away after graduation,” Nada Torbica, a 22-year-old from Boca Raton, Fla., told The Post. In a viral TikTok video with nearly a million views, she listed the pros and cons of living at home in her 20s: “You work to save 100% of your paychecks. Free meals, can spend paychecks on traveling, gets to live with family dog, no real adult responsibilities.”
Torbica, who graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in industrial engineering earlier this year and works in supply chain planning, said she does want to live on her own — eventually.
“I’m just trying to save up more money so that I can be comfortable when I move out and fully support myself like 100%.”
According to the Harris Poll, just one quarter of Gen Zers are able to pay all of their bills on time. That’s hardly surprising, said Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree.
“We’re likely to see young adults continue to put off important financial and personal milestones because they just can’t afford them,” he said. “They’ll keep waiting longer to marry, have kids, buy a house or start a business, and they may skip going to college altogether, just to name a few.”
Some would prefer the comforts of their childhood to the penny-pinching of adulthood.
Daniel Eghdami, a 27-year-old artist, moved from his own place in Washington, DC, to his parents’ apartments on the Upper East Side at the start of the pandemic for financial reasons.
“It of course was a substantially higher quality apartment than I would have been able to afford,” he told The Post. But he admitted that “the optics” were the worst part.
“Having to say ‘I live at home with my parents’ to new people felt kind of shameful, especially considering I felt I was a little bit older than was socially acceptable to be in that situation,” said Eghdami, who didn’t pay rent to his parents but did pay for his own groceries and household expenses.
He also struggled with some “friction” with his parents.
“Getting to have a higher quality of life was a big plus, but having it come at the expense of freedom and autonomy balanced it out. Net neutral,” said Eghdami, who recently moved into his own place in Astoria.
Noah Dickson, a 25-year-old, said he “hated” it when he first moved home to Flowery Branch, Georgia, after graduating from college. But, living at home has actually helped him to grow.
He’s been able to build his business as a fashion designer while helping his parents around the home and contributing financially to the household.
The living situation, said Dickson, who recently showed at New York Fashion Week, has allowed him to “mature in a way that is invaluable.”
For Torbica, it’s had the opposite effect.
She said: “I think I’m learning the full responsibilities of what an adult would need to do at a much slower pace.”