“On the one hand, housing is more affordable here compared to other areas around the country (especially larger cities),” Daniel Potter, director of the Houston Population Research Center at Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research, told Chron in a statement. “Because of that relative affordability, it might be expected that the number of adult children living at home with parents is lower.”
But it’s not just Houston; according to the report, more than 25 million Americans under 35 currently share a home with their parents, the highest number ever recorded.
“Adults living with their parents today are largely employed, and many hold college degrees,” Realtor.com senior economist Hannah Jones said in the report. “This is a supply story, not an employment story. What’s holding them back isn’t a lack of qualifications, but rather, at least in part, a lack of housing they can afford.”
Data cited in the report traces the trend back to the Great Recession, when more young adults moved back home and never fully returned to previous levels of independent living. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated that shift, and while historically low mortgage rates briefly helped some buyers leave the nest in 2021 and 2022, affordability challenges have continued to push many others in the opposite direction.
Still, the phrase “living with your parents” doesn’t always tell the whole story. For example, in many American immigrant households, it’s not uncommon for parents to live with their adult children.
Multigenerational households, in general, have become more common across the country as families navigate rising housing costs, caregiving responsibilities and longer life expectancies. In other words, sharing a roof is less a sign of financial hardship and more a practical solution to challenges affecting multiple generations at once.
“Houston is home to incredible diversity, which includes many immigrants who are coming from countries and cultures where multi-generational households are more common and expected,” Potter noted. “As such, the composition of Houston’s residents and cultural practices that make up portions of the area could drive up the number of adult children living at home.”
Of course, Realtor.com’s data suggests affordability remains the biggest driver behind the trend. But for many families, the answer may be more complicated than simply refusing to leave the nest; sometimes the nest just gets a little bigger.