More millennials staying home with their parents

WASHINGTON (CBSDC)- Despite an improving economy over the last five years, more millennials are still living under the same roof as their families, according to new Pew Research Center analysis. The unemployment rate for 18- to 34-year-olds was 7.7 percent in the first four months of this year, compared with 6.2 percent in 2007, according to the report.

The study focused on the 18 to 34 year old set and concluded that they are less likely to leave the nest and establish their own households than they were during the Great Recession of the 1930s.

One in three young adults is still living at home with their parents, despite years of economic recovery which have seen more of them bag jobs and bigger pay packets.

The decline in independent living has come even as the job market for millennials has recovered somewhat, Pew said. “Over the same time period, the share of young adults living in their parents’ homes has increased from 24% to 26%”. Median weekly earnings for the first third of 2015 are slightly lower, adjusted for inflation, while rent prices have increased.

A study by the New York Federal Reserve in June found that areas of the country with high youth unemployment, expensive housing and high incomes tend to be where more young adults were living with parents.

Even though there’s about 3 million more Americans in the 18-34-age bracket today than there was in pre-recession 2007, there are fewer millennials living independently in 2015.

Researchers note that the trend could have important implications for the nation’s housing market recovery efforts, as the young adult population is not fueling demand for housing units or the purchases that accompany newly formed households.

Some research points to student loan debt as another culprit.

William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution said, “I think the economy hasn’t improved long enough to have young people feel confident that they can both get a job and then provide their own living arrangements”.

The thing is that over 50 percent said they plan to wait after 2018, which Apartment List attributed to the fact that millennials are getting married later and their student debt is growing.