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Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

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Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#11

Post by YokoZar »

hn_user2 wrote: post #8

Rising rents and harder to get home loans do sound like the primary cause. That being said, I also believe there is not quite the same urgency to leave home for current young adults. Just from personal observation they don't necessarily see increasing their expenses just to be more independent as worthwhile. Same goes with getting a driver license and a car. I don't think it's necessarily being lazy, I think they mig…

And the cause of rising rents and harder to get loans is a rise in home prices. Yet when we hear news reports about rising housing costs, we say that the housing market is "recovering" as though it's somehow a good thing.

Perhaps we should rethink our nationwide policies of raising housing costs.

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#12

Post by maxerickson »

malandrew wrote: post #9
notyourwork wrote: post #3

Cost of tuition continually grows, most graduates are not falling into extremely lucrative salaries and average salaries are not keeping up with inflation. This is far from surprising but is very concerning. Another avenue to pursue this discussion from is the % of income allocated to retirement savings. I have a sneaky suspicious most of my peers are saving less for retirement than the same demographic 10, 20, 30 ye…

The problem already goes beyond millennials. Increasing automation is going to make unskilled labor a huge liability for countries. This is one reason I don't think some of the anti-immigrant position of many Americans (and Europeans) is unwarranted. Every country should want highly skilled labor to help improve their current account, but unskilled labor is huge future liability. There is already a huge surplus of do…

If there's literally no work to do, you can meet the material demands of the problem by turning more machines on.

(meanwhile lots of the US runs on cheap labor)

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#13

Post by white-flame »

I'm not a millennial, but it makes a heck of a lot of financial sense to live with family. I'm glad that with these shifts, the stigma is falling away. My immediate family has lived through rough times, with lots of "creative" living arrangements.

Of course, we should still train general life autonomy, and not promote being able-but-incapable shut-ins, but being able to venture into housing (or back out of it if things go really pear-shaped) should be done flexibly. The family unit as a reciprocating life cushion is a very positive thing to maintain. If you're on the receiving end of this cushion, make sure you're doing your part for your parents and/or extended household, too.

I don't care that economists and real estate investors bemoan the shrinking population of those able to buy houses. When times are financially tough, people need to pool together, not overextend themselves. Overall statistics about economic recovery also don't evenly represent all families.

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#14

Post by [deleted] »

hn_user2 wrote: post #8

Rising rents and harder to get home loans do sound like the primary cause. That being said, I also believe there is not quite the same urgency to leave home for current young adults. Just from personal observation they don't necessarily see increasing their expenses just to be more independent as worthwhile. Same goes with getting a driver license and a car. I don't think it's necessarily being lazy, I think they mig…

[deleted]

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#15

Post by jackcosgrove »

notyourwork wrote: post #3

Cost of tuition continually grows, most graduates are not falling into extremely lucrative salaries and average salaries are not keeping up with inflation. This is far from surprising but is very concerning. Another avenue to pursue this discussion from is the % of income allocated to retirement savings. I have a sneaky suspicious most of my peers are saving less for retirement than the same demographic 10, 20, 30 ye…

Your sneaking suspicion is correct for baby boomers and gen X: http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/about/news-room/press-releases/2.... "Gen Xers have less wealth and six times more debt than their parents did at the same age," despite having higher salaries.

I think you're right to be concerned. Not being able to strike out on your own delays family formation, which leads to some attrition of people who never have children for financial reasons. This decreases the birthrate and then on top of the working generation supporting members within its own cohort, they also have to support an older generation of retirees with an ever rising dependency ratio. It's a negative feedback loop that countries like Japan, Germany, and Italy are stuck in.

Both the education and housing problems can be solved. Education can be automated and amateurized using technology, and more housing can be built. Both of these would do a lot to decrease youth debt loads. Medical price inflation is the tougher problem but is less pressing for young people. Eventually we will be old though and then it will hit like a ton of bricks for those unlucky enough to have not accumulated wealth.

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#16

Post by jackcosgrove »

YokoZar wrote: post #11
hn_user2 wrote: post #8

Rising rents and harder to get home loans do sound like the primary cause. That being said, I also believe there is not quite the same urgency to leave home for current young adults. Just from personal observation they don't necessarily see increasing their expenses just to be more independent as worthwhile. Same goes with getting a driver license and a car. I don't think it's necessarily being lazy, I think they mig…

And the cause of rising rents and harder to get loans is a rise in home prices. Yet when we hear news reports about rising housing costs, we say that the housing market is "recovering" as though it's somehow a good thing. Perhaps we should rethink our nationwide policies of raising housing costs.

We have policies that favor home owners because, 1) older people are more likely to own homes and they vote at higher rates, and 2) politicians love property tax revenue. If you don't vote and you don't fill their coffers, you're invisible to politicians.

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#18

Post by dikdik »

hn_user2 wrote: post #8

Rising rents and harder to get home loans do sound like the primary cause. That being said, I also believe there is not quite the same urgency to leave home for current young adults. Just from personal observation they don't necessarily see increasing their expenses just to be more independent as worthwhile. Same goes with getting a driver license and a car. I don't think it's necessarily being lazy, I think they mig…

I sort of agree with you, but I don't think you completely understand the problem. Yes, it doesn't really "matter" if people are living with their parents or on their own. The problem is what this shift signals.

People are not much different than they were 50 years ago. If it took just as much resources to live on your own 50 years ago as today, there would "not be the same urgency to leave home." Of course no one wants to leave home if it's going to cost them 40% of their take home pay, but if it only costs them 10-20% of their pay, I really doubt you will see a ton of millenials that don't care about living at home.

This shift in housing signals a dearth of resources available to the current generation. Do we think that's a good thing? A bad thing? Or is it completely neutral? Does it have implications elsewhere for our economy? These are the things that are actually important.

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#19

Post by hkmurakami »

white-flame wrote: post #13

I'm not a millennial, but it makes a heck of a lot of financial sense to live with family. I'm glad that with these shifts, the stigma is falling away. My immediate family has lived through rough times, with lots of "creative" living arrangements. Of course, we should still train general life autonomy, and not promote being able-but-incapable shut-ins, but being able to venture into housing (or back out of it if thin…

I've heard that in (at least some regions of) Spain, it's perfectly common and acceptable to continue living with their parents well into adulthood.

I remember reading that José María Olazábal (one of the best professional golfers in the 90's, with millions of dollars in earnings) was still living with his parents into his early 40's (though to be fair, he was traveling for half the year on tour).

I often think that the "move out from home" pressure is a ploy by the real estate industry.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Mar%C3%ADa_Olaz%C3%A...

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#20

Post by white-flame »

hn_user2 wrote: post #8

Rising rents and harder to get home loans do sound like the primary cause. That being said, I also believe there is not quite the same urgency to leave home for current young adults. Just from personal observation they don't necessarily see increasing their expenses just to be more independent as worthwhile. Same goes with getting a driver license and a car. I don't think it's necessarily being lazy, I think they mig…

In the video, they mention that the job growth isn't evenly distributed; it's really only happening on the coastal business hot spots, where real estate was already insane, so that portion of the recovery doesn't help at all with housing.

Consequently, is the implication that the rest of the country isn't recovering nearly as well as the average is reporting? Housing might not be shooting up in the rest of the country, but wages and job opportunities are not great, either.

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