More older Millennials live with relatives

They got hit hardest by recession because that’s when many graduated from high school, college

20% of adults 26 to 34 now live with parents or other relatives, up from 17% in 2012. 59.8% of adults 18 to 25 now live with parents or other relatives, down from 61.1% in 2012.

The share of older Millennials living with relatives is still rising, underscoring the lingering obstacles faced by Americans who entered the workforce during and after the Great Recession.

About 20% of adults age 26 to 34 are living with parents or other family members, a figure that has climbed steadily the past decade and is up from 17% in 2012, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data by Trulia, a real estate research firm. The increase defies record job openings and a 4.1% unemployment rate, lowest in 17 years.

Not surprisingly, a much larger portion of younger Millennials age 18 to 25 (59.8%) live with relatives, but that figure generally has fallen the past few years after peaking at 61.1% in 2012.

After graduating from Texas Tech University with a journalism major in 2005, Heidi Toth, now 35, got a job quickly at a Provo, Utah, newspaper. But in early 2007, she went on an 18month church mission, landing her back in the job market in the depths of the recession in 2008. Unable to find work, she moved in with her mother in Roswell, N.M., for nine months while she hunted for work and took parttime, low-paying jobs.

She was rehired at the Provo paper in spring 2009 but left again in 2013 after a series of layoffs modified her duties. After months of fruitless job searching and traveling, she returned to her mother’s house for three months until she was hired at a Lubbock, Texas, paper. Toth was grateful she could live rent free during her periods of unemployment. But, she adds, “It wasn’t ideal, professionally or personally.”

Prospective employers in larger, distant cities didn’t think she would be readily available for interviews. And at home, “I felt like I was back in high school,” she says. “I felt like I had to ask permission to go out.”

Toth, who now works in public relations at an Arizona University and rents a duplex in Flagstaff, says her winding career path has hampered her earnings and career advancement.

All told, 38.4% of 18-to-34-yearolds live with family. That’s up from 28.7% in 1962 in part because a growing number of young people are delaying marriage, Trulia chief economist Ralph McLaughlin says. The living-athome trend accelerated during the recession but has been stable since 2012 as more younger Millennials, but fewer older ones, leave the nest.

The older group got hit hardest by the recession of 2007 to 2009 because that’s when many graduated from high school and college, economists say.

“That scarring, of not being able to get that experience after graduation, is very harmful,” says Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.

By contrast, younger Millennials pursued their first jobs in a healthy labor market the past few years.

There are other reasons more older Millennials are living with relatives. Many are burdened by student debt and can’t afford high rents, especially in larger cities.

And with a housing shortage driving up prices in recent years, some people in their late 20s and 30s prefer to live with relatives so they can sock away more money to buy a home, McLaughlin says.

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