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Like anything, this doesn't show the full picture.
Several of my friends - all college educated worked full time, middle class jobs - still live at home even into their mid to late 20s. In one case, both sons have decent paying jobs but are expected to live at home rent-free until they marry. The older son is is 32, getting married in the fall, and has a full 20% down payment on one of the $400,000+ starter condos (yes, you read that right) in my area. My best friend lived with roommates for awhile, but then realized she could pay off her student loans AND save for a downpayment on a condo by living at home. Her parents are thrilled to have the extra set of hands to make sure there is dinner on the table every night, the house is kept clean, and outdoor chores that they are beginning to have a harder time with (like shoveling out after a storm) are done. I can repeat this story half a dozen times. In a few other cases, such as my boyfriend (who splits his time between his parents' house 4 hours away and an apartment with roommates locally), the parents wouldn't make it financially without the kids. My boyfriend runs a business out of his parents' barn without which his parents would not have employment, as well as pays a portion of the mortgage and utilities. Without him, his parents would lose their home and land.
Even studios in the dumpiest neighborhoods far out on a bus line cost over $1200 a month in my area (if you can find one so cheaply) plus utilities. If you want to put 20% down on your first place, you need to cough up $70,000. The only people I know who are managing to buy their own homes in their 20s or early 30s are those who live with their parents, have significant help from their parents, or are extremely high earning dual incomes. I can't find it in myself to begrudge people for making sacrifices within their families to ensure long-term security.
Yes, they can, they just can't afford the Life-Style they wrongfully believe they're entitled to have.
Nothing need be done, because they're too wimpy and docile to do anything.
Do you think money grows on trees? Even terrible apartments in lousy parts of town nowadays cost thousands of dollars in rent, making it impossible to save up enough money to get one's own place later. Really simple. Like I said, the moralizing types are the delusional ones here, failure to understand very basic economics.
Out by me they have USDA loans because it's a rural area. I pull in $60K/year (highest paying factory in town) while my house cost $120K (bought in October with no money down at auction) .. I could sell it for $160-170K though which is the typical "starter" home price.. more like $180K if the basement is finished. My home is from 1977 and larger but it still needs a bit of work yet. You can get really cheap homes if you're willing to commute 15-30 miles each way.
In any case most blue collar work doesn't pay crap today which is why there is a worker shortage.. you want people to bust their butt off, at least start them at $12-13/hour... heck even the crappy jobs in my town start above $12/hour now and there's no state income tax out here. There's even more of a shortage out here though.
If you're a factory starting at $10/hour which was a poor starting wage for even 10 years ago, might as well pack it up and move to China. You're not going to get anyone in the door for bread crumbs. Many people reading this probably live in large metro areas where $15/hour or higher doesn't even cut it... well you could move if you had too..
The boomers could walk into factories and get living wages. My mother was making near $10/hour back in the 1980's when she quit and aside from electronics and video games, most stuff cost a fraction of the price back then, especially real estate, stocks, cars, and the like. Now people straddled with debt are lucky to start at $16/hour in many professions. If people were smart they'd ignore their liberal high school counselors that encourage people to go into liberal arts or the medical field and poo poo the trades, because the trades are where the good money is at right now. Electricians, plumbers, diesel mechanics, welders, etc. One or two years of school max and a decent starting wage, many times employers coming right into the classroom to recruit... much less debt straddled on your shoulders... if you're young and reading this...
I grew up in a large family and a large home but it was pretty tight space and very age based on who got their own room. I wouldn't have wanted to live in a garage or basement or attic or wherever I could be put and pay rent compared to having my own place, even with roommates, if i had the financial choice.
The bad thing was being back home with the same high school life with the same friends and same parks ,beaches,hangouts etc, same life as high school. The same life as high school and I am 24 but deep down my parents wanted me to move on and I did as well. It was very depressing to return home after college
An old Billy joel tune from an album my dad had summed it up for me and I was even older
"So you play your albums, and you smoke your pot
And you meet your girlfriend in the parking lot
Oh but still you're aching for the things you haven't got
What went wrong?
And if you can't understand why your world is so dead
Why you've got to keep in style and feed your head
Well you're 21 and still your mother makes your bed
And that's too long"
We have a furnished, attic apartment. It is of the same finish level as the rest of our house. I reckon it is around 700 sq ft.
Our eldest lives there (he'll be back in college again as of this summer). He rents from us. Not as much as the cost of an apartment that size, but we do want him to sock away some savings and he's been doing that.
He doesn't like roommate scenarios, though I suspect he and his younger brother (who is in his first year of college and not working so he lives at home to save money) might move out together at some point, but both are pretty content here.
Mind you, we do not live in a place that people want to escape from. We live in an area that is growing, so there's plenty here for them.
We don't have tons of kids who are crammed in whatever space. They all have their own beds/baths and the eldest has his own floor of the house.
Eh... it works for us and I know others like us. My kids are close-knit, though. The youngest is still in high school. Once she decides to move out, I would imagine the other two will as well, if they have not already.
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Sorry don't buy it either. This generation was raised with an over inflated self esteem ( you are wonderful at Everything) and thus expect life to be easy.
No, they were raised in a terrible economy for 99% of Americans with lack of good jobs, stagnant or declining wages while housing and costs of living keep shooting up. Lack of opportunity and getting their own homes beyond affordability. Really cracks me up when non-Miillennials point fingers like they know better, these moralizing fools grew up when jobs were more plentiful and costs of living were a tiny fraction of what they are now. Affordability is much lower now and this is even before getting to college costs and healthcare costs. Job security is nonexistent and a single illness can bankrupt you. Too many moralizing morons with no idea how economics works in the real world.
My son lived at home with me until he was 27. Why? Because he didn't finish college, he had gotten himself into $10,000 of debt that I made him work to pay off, and the cost of housing in Los Angeles is far outpacing wages. This is why people who do "live on their own" need roommates, and not just renting bedrooms, but also the living room.
To illustrate this, I make good money and yet I can't afford to move from my two-bedroom apartment. My rent is $1,660. Market rate would be $2,200. A one-bedroom in this building is going for $1,850-$1,900.
My son has worked at Ralphs (Kroger) for almost ten years, and he's finally making over $20 an hour. This seems like good money - but not if you live in L.A. Yes, he could relocate somewhere else, but who knows what that job would pay? Companies aren't stupid, and they'll reduce wages commensurate with the reduced cost of living.
I wish he'd go back to school and get a degree, but he's not motivated to do so right now. School never really motivated him, and I tried my best to make him see how important an education is. (This is the problem with children; they're often determined to go their own way and make their own mistakes even if they have more difficult lives as a result.)
You make a lot of relevant points here, to be fair having been in CA myself for many years before going overseas, the costs of education and getting a degree are often a "cure" much worse than the disease because tuition can be so expensive and put you deep into debt.
I'll be honest, I think more and more the best option for young Americans is to leave the USA, many for good, because costs of living are much lower almost anywhere else in the world, jobs are often more plentiful, you won't go bankrupt from health costs if you get sick or injured, crime is lower, plus college in many countries is very low cost. As I myself learned from reading posts and articles cited here, if American students are good enough, they can go to countries like Germany, France, Argentina, Chile, Norway, Finland and much of Asia, and they won't be burdened with any college debt at all. So they can train in a good field, get a degree, learn a trade but have no debt, start a new job and or start businesses, and be in great shape.
So go overseas, young Americans. Opportunity-- not to mention good incomes and manageable cost of living-- is no longer at home.
Most of those complaining they can't get a job and are living with their parents probably majored in something stupid.
You are completely clueless. I work in the STEM field and graduated with a lot of people who were tops in their class, and the tech industry esp. led by companies like Facebook, Microsoft and of course Disney with its infamous replacement of American workers by cheap labor Indian workers, is gung-ho to the extreme with moves to shift US jobs overseas (especially to Bangalore and other places in India) or replace American workers, in America, with cheap h1b hires, also mostly from India. Especially in computer programming and engineering. These are STEM majors often with student loan debt, these kinds of majors require intensive study that doesn't come cheap, but then when they graduate, they find the jobs have been shipped out of the country.
This is what I can't stand about the moralizing morons here, they try to have it both ways. They defend this short sighted libertarian neoliberal bull**** about how US companies-- supported by American security and tax dollars-- should be able to do whatever they want for profit, even to the point of firing Americans, pushing them off health insurance and replacing them with cheap labor imported from India. But then they turn around and whine about how Americans can't afford their own homes or get good jobs or incomes which, you know, has a lot to do with all those short sighted corporations sending jobs abroad. If you're so cool with US companies replacing STEM-trained Americans with cheap labor, do you think this might have something to do with Americans having difficulties getting good jobs and affording housing? And then many of you wonder why so many Americans, young Americans especially are just up and leaving the US and working overseas. Common sense economics, really simple.
It's because their sissies and are too good for real work that MEN do. They need to go get dirty working a real job and stop expecting to make a living in an office with just a 2 year degree.
I actually agree with a lot of this concept, but problem is, even companies involved in manual labor nowadays want workers with a useless college degree which sets people back in debt. And to anyone who says "oh, just start your own business"-- that takes capital, a sh&t-ton of capital and even then most businesses fail. America needs good jobs and a more manageable cost of living, otherwise Americans will just go abroad.
I'd suggest the gaming etc is a byproduct not the cause of the phenomenon for the vast majority. possibly an escape from the reality.
We hear the economy is improving, but what I EXPERIENCE and SEE is people working multiple part-time jobs paying "good" around like $12 an hour at most with most making less. Employers don't want to pay benefits so they opt out for part-time help.
The environment currently is increased taxes, costs of living, decreased long-term employment opportunities, high student loan debt, etc.
Add to this, the parents often times aren't doing all that great as well. They can benefit from their kid giving them money for the month.
Things are not the rosy painted picture that is portrayed by so many on this site.
I'm 35 and recently moved back into my mothers house to attend a local nursing program and to help her pay the bills. The current economic landscape i'm looking at is positions paying $10-$13.50/hour.
So right, wish I could rec this 100X. Hard to believe how many moralizers here are ignorant of basic economics. Yes there are jobs being created, but they're mostly part time jobs and low wages, which are useless when they don't pay the bills. And these jobs don't provide health insurance either, which is a tremendous drain on people's savings.
The funny thing is for those of us who work overseas, even the ones in Europe, the taxes really aren't that high, they're comparable or even lower than American taxes (especially those of us in Asia). Yet we get a lot more for our taxes, college is often very low cost and above all, we get the health care we need without ever having to worry about going belly up from a hospital stay or healthcare expenses.
Most spoiled generation of all time. School? Cheap. Factory? Walk on the line and prove yourself. Must have been nice.
Now? School fees will follow you for ages. Factories? What are those?
Always makes me laugh. What a pile of crap they left us.
Totally. Like I was saying before, for Millennials the land of opportunity more and more is some country overseas. Lower cost of living, better salaries than in America (in China by law companies must pay us the same as natives so wages stay strong), affordable healthcare so you never go belly up from healthcare costs, low cost college so you can train and get better, similar or lower taxes even in Europe, affordable housing, less crime on top of that.
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