A new study shows that more young adults are living at home — 52.8% of 18 to 24-year-olds. So, above all else, know that if you have adult children living at home, you are not alone — not anywhere near alone! Half of your friends probably have their adult kids living at home, too.
The study was conducted by researchers at Columbia University in New York based on data from the U.S. Current Population Survey. You can ready more about the study here.
A new survey by UK firm YouGov has provided some scary statistics about the financial impact recent economic challenges have had on families with adult children. Among the findings:
But here’s the really scary bit:
And worst of all:
Yikes!
This cheeky graphic comes from a recent article in the Globe and Mail. And in case you’re wondering what the secret is — it’s you.
The article talks about a study published last month in the Journal of Marriage and Family that looked at the relationships of 633 Philadelphia-area parents, aged 40 to 60, and their 1,384 children, aged 18 to 33.
The findings? Of those 18- to 33-year-old adult children, 76% got domestic help monthly, and 79% got money most months. That’s more than three quarters of 18- to 33-year-olds still getting regular financial support from mom and dad!
The article also introduces us to a couple of families where the moms seem happy to continue baking and doing laundry for their adult children. If this describes you, keep in mind that your adult children will need to learn to do their own laundry some day — and you’re really not helping them to become independent by continuing to care for them as if they are small children.
You can read the whole Globe article here.
Here’s a great graphic from the Baltimore Sun that shows in visual form the impact that the recession is having on young adults:
The Pew Research Center recently released some interesting statistics:
You can read an article that explains Pew’s methods of data collection, and provides some analysis, here.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national unemployment rate for young adults over age 25 was 8.5% in August. Nine years ago, that rate was just 3%.
For younger adults, the situation is even worse. In August, the national unemployment rate for 18-19-year-olds was a full 25%.
With youth unemployment rates at these levels, it’s no wonder that so many young adults are living with their parents. For tips on how to make the situation more livable for your family, check out our free report on the 8 Most Dangerous Mistakes Parents Make When Their Adult Child Lives at Home by filling out the box on the top right of this page.
A new survey from CreditCards.com shows that 20% of fathers would help their children to pay off $20,000 or more in debt, even without expecting to be repaid. Just 12% of mothers said they would make the same decision.
In both cases, parents were willing to help pay off credit cards, a mortgage, or student loans, and were much less likely to help pay off gambling debts.
You can read an article about the survey here.
In Australia, as in the rest of the world, adult children are living at home longer — and when they do leave, they’re quite likely to “boomerang” home within one to four years. In fact, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 54% of 25- to 29-year-olds who live at home were out of the nest at some point, and 8% of 30- to 34-year-olds still live at home!
That prompted Murray Olds and Murray Wilson from Radio 2UE Sydney to give me a call this afternoon to talk about rules for adult children living at home. I talked to them about the importance of creating a contract or living agreement for adult children moving home. They’ve got the whole interview (about 5 minutes) posted on their website, and you can check it out here.
More research on adult children living at home has just come in from Australia. This time, it’s from Bankwest, and the results are a bit scary — but even more so are the quotes from Gen Y kids in an article about the survey published in the Herald Sun.
First, the findings from the survey, as published in the Herald Sun:
- Parents are forking out $6000 a year to support their stay-at-home children.
- Only 42 per cent pay rent and of those, the average amount is just $70 per week.
- 60 per cent of parents think their kids don’t pull their weight around the house.
- Almost half of parents felt they were taken for granted by their children kids.
- More than half of Gen Ys said they could not afford to move out and 39 per cent said they liked the extra perks of homemade dinners and getting their laundry done.
It’s that last stat that probably gets the hackles of parents up. If it’s got you fuming, check out this quote from a Gen Y-er from the article:
“It’s nice having somebody take care of you a bit: laundry, dinner, a clean house, not having to do too much and obviously the money side.”
You can read the entire article here.
A new survey from St George Bank in Australia shows that 50% of parents are unable or unwilling to provide as much financial support to their kids than they did before the global economic crisis.
Jason Rose, a real estate agent in Australia provides some interesting analysis of this situation on his blog. He says that among the impacts are the fact that adult children will live at home longer, and adults will be much older when they buy their first homes.
You can read his blog post here.