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More Millennials Living With Mom

More millennials age 24-36 live with their moms than at any time in the past decade, according to the latest Zillow analysis. Nearly a quarter of U.S. millennials are living at home with their mom, which translates to about 12 million young adults ...

More millennials age 24-36 live with their moms than at any time in the past decade, according to the latest Zillow analysis. Nearly a quarter of U.S. millennials are living at home with their mom, which translates to about 12 million young adults nationwide.

Despite a strong economic recovery, the share of millennials living with their moms has been increasing since 2005, when just 13.5 percent lived with their moms. The combination of rapidly rising rents and slow income growth over the past half-decade drove many young adults to either move back in or never move out of their parents’ home, but the trend has been persistent even as the U.S. labor market has improved.

Among the millennials living with their moms, almost 12 percent are unemployed and, according to a new Zillow analysis released earlier this week, 28 percent of recent college grads live with their parents, up from 19 percent in 2005.

“As rents outpaced incomes over the past decade, young people turned to their families in large numbers to ease the housing cost crunch,” said Zillow senior economist Aaron Terrazas. “But even as the labor market has improved, the family safety net has yet to unwind. Living with parents may allow young adults to pursue work or a passion that may not be especially lucrative, or save enough money for first and last month’s rent or a down payment on a home of their own. In booming Western markets, relatively few young adults live with parents, not because rents are cheap but because family is far away. There is also a small slice of this young adult population that has mom living with them instead. Perhaps mom needs extra care as she ages, or has moved in with an adult child to help raise her grandchildren.”

More millennials live with their moms in areas where housing costs consume a larger share of income. For example, in Miami, New York, Riverside, Calif. and Los Angeles, more than 30 percent of millennials live at home with their mom. These are also among the country’s pricier rental markets where rents typically consume upwards of 35 percent of the median income.

Austin, Texas has the smallest share of millennials living at home with their mom, at 14 percent. Renters in Austin can expect to put less than 30 percent of their income toward a rental payment. Other markets with a small percentage of millennials living with Mom include Seattle, Denver and Oklahoma City.

The median rent in the U.S. is $1,447 per month, up almost 3 percent over the past year. Zillow forecasts rents to increase about 2 percent over the next 12 months to a Zillow Rent Index[iii] of $1,475.

Metropolitan Area

Share of
Millennials
Living w/
Mom in
2005

Share of
Millennials
Living w/
Mom in
2016

Zillow Rent
Index (ZRI)

Share of
Income Spent
on Monthly
Rent Payment

Unemployment
Rate Among
Millennials
Living with
Mom

United States

13.5%

22.5%

$           1,447

28.9%

11.6%

New York, NY

20.4%

30.3%

$           2,400

38.8%

11.4%

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA

18.4%

30.2%

$           2,753

47.3%

8.5%

Chicago, IL

15.8%

26.1%

$           1,654

29.0%

11.5%

Dallas-Fort Worth, TX

9.8%

19.7%

$           1,606

29.0%

9.1%

Philadelphia, PA

18.4%

28.5%

$           1,581

27.7%

11.0%

Houston, TX

12.9%

22.3%

$           1,558

29.4%

12.2%

Washington, DC

13.0%

21.8%

$           2,148

25.9%

10.2%

Miami-Fort Lauderdale, FL

15.6%

33.4%

$           1,865

42.1%

10.3%

Atlanta, GA

10.7%

23.3%

$           1,397

25.9%

13.0%

Boston, MA

14.7%

23.2%

$           2,379

33.4%

9.2%

San Francisco, CA

14.1%

21.1%

$           3,420

39.9%

10.0%

Detroit, MI

15.4%

24.2%

$           1,208

24.6%

14.7%

Riverside, CA

17.6%

33.0%

$           1,885

36.7%

12.7%

Phoenix, AZ

9.7%

21.0%

$           1,364

26.9%

12.1%

Seattle, WA

9.2%

14.4%

$           2,208

30.9%

8.7%

Minneapolis-St Paul, MN

8.5%

16.5%

$           1,643

26.1%

8.2%

San Diego, CA

11.8%

23.3%

$           2,550

41.2%

11.8%

St. Louis, MO

12.6%

19.5%

$           1,150

22.2%

12.1%

Tampa, FL

10.8%

22.0%

$           1,377

30.8%

11.6%

Baltimore, MD

15.2%

24.2%

$           1,745

26.0%

11.4%

Denver, CO

8.9%

15.0%

$           2,054

32.4%

8.4%

Pittsburgh, PA

15.9%

23.0%

$           1,075

21.6%

14.4%

Portland, OR

8.0%

17.0%

$           1,860

31.3%

9.3%

Charlotte, NC

10.4%

19.5%

$           1,299

24.8%

12.7%

Sacramento, CA

12.3%

22.4%

$           1,852

33.0%

8.8%

San Antonio, TX

14.3%

29.2%

$           1,345

27.7%

7.7%

Orlando, FL

10.1%

24.0%

$           1,442

31.1%

11.0%

Cincinnati, OH

10.9%

18.8%

$           1,282

24.6%

11.2%

Cleveland, OH

14.7%

21.3%

$           1,149

25.5%

14.7%

Kansas City, MO

9.0%

15.4%

$           1,282

24.1%

13.0%

Las Vegas, NV

11.2%

24.1%

$           1,302

27.4%

12.5%

Columbus, OH

8.8%

16.8%

$           1,324

25.5%

11.0%

Indianapolis, IN

7.9%

16.8%

$           1,207

24.7%

12.0%

San Jose, CA

14.3%

21.3%

$           3,523

36.3%

9.8%

Austin, TX

8.0%

13.9%

$           1,686

27.3%

8.1%

Virginia Beach, VA

11.6%

23.3%

$           1,408

26.4%

11.1%

Nashville, TN

9.2%

16.6%

$           1,499

28.7%

11.3%

Providence, RI

17.5%

26.2%

$           1,664

30.5%

8.6%

Milwaukee, WI

11.9%

17.5%

$           1,367

27.1%

11.4%

Jacksonville, FL

11.1%

19.6%

n/a

26.3%

8.4%

Memphis, TN

13.4%

23.7%

$           1,088

25.0%

14.8%

Oklahoma City, OK

9.6%

15.2%

$           1,100

22.9%

10.5%

Louisville-Jefferson County, KY

12.6%

18.8%

$           1,194

25.2%

18.0%

Hartford, CT

17.8%

24.2%

$           1,604

25.7%

14.5%

Richmond, VA

11.9%

22.6%

$           1,396

25.6%

12.9%

New Orleans, LA

19.3%

26.8%

$           1,385

33.3%

14.1%

Buffalo, NY

16.2%

22.2%

$           1,216

25.9%

9.1%

Raleigh, NC

6.5%

17.2%

$           1,439

22.9%

14.2%

Birmingham, AL

13.6%

22.5%

$           1,054

23.5%

16.4%

Salt Lake City, UT

10.6%

19.0%

$           1,591

26.8%

9.0%