Record 25.2 million young adults live with parents as housing costs bite

A record 25.2 million adults under 35 were living with their parents in 2025, and about 70% of them had jobs. The figures point to a housing crunch that is keeping employed young adults at home, not just a labor market problem.

For one woman in her mid-30s, a breakup was enough to break the budget. She said her $60,000 salary no longer covered all her bills, so moving back home became the only affordable option, a reminder that a single life event can erase the math of independence when rent, debt and everyday expenses are already stretched thin.

Realtor.com said the share of young adults living with parents climbed back to 33% after easing from its pandemic peak, matching roughly 1 in 3 adults under 35. In a June 18, 2026 mediaroom release, the company framed the trend as “The Empty Nest Is on Hold,” and Hannah Jones, a Realtor.com economist, tied the surge to affordability pressures rather than unemployment.

That distinction matters because a homecoming that used to signal joblessness now often reflects cost. If seven in 10 young adults living with parents are employed, then wages are failing to keep pace with rent, student debt, breakup-driven relocations and the price of starting over with deposits and first month’s rent at the same time.

The pattern is not evenly spread across the country. Pew Research Center said on April 17, 2025, that shares of young adults living with parents vary widely across U.S. metro areas, underscoring how local housing markets shape whether an adult can leave home or must stay put.

The same strain shows up abroad. BBC coverage cited Office for National Statistics data showing that in 2025, 35% of UK men aged 20 to 35 were living with their parents, compared with 22% of women in the same age group. BBC analysis also found that more than 40% of 25-year-olds in the UK were living with their parents, a sign that delayed independence has become a broader feature of expensive housing markets.

Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies has previously said young adults briefly returned home during the pandemic and then moved out again as the pandemic continued. The latest rebound above that earlier surge suggests the pressure is no longer a temporary emergency response, but a durable test of whether work, rent and adulthood can still be made to fit.