Record number of U.S. adults are moving in with their parents as costs rise, study finds
A record number of adult children under 35 in the U.S. are moving back in with their parents, either because they can't afford homes of their own or because they want to save money amid the rising cost of living, according to a recent study.
In 2025, 25.2 million adults under 35 lived at home, according to Realtor.com, which found that the share of adults living with their moms and dads was higher than it was during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many of these adults moving back in with their parents are employed, but their wages aren't keeping up with inflation. Among the 25- to 34-year-olds living at home, roughly 7 in 10 have jobs, the online real estate firm found.
Karleigh Gaudreau, a 34-year-old business coach and online content creator, is among the Americans who recently moved back home, telling CBS News she couldn't afford to live on her own after breaking up with a boyfriend she had been living with in South Carolina.
Gaudreau, who earns about $60,000 a year, said she could afford to split rent but couldn't cover the full cost alone.
"To be able to afford that on top of your student loans or car payment, it's really hard to function off of anything, I believe, less than $85,000," Gaudreau said.
"Society as a whole has to respond"
She's hardly alone in her financial struggles, as the dream of homeownership slips further out of reach for many Americans amid rising home prices and higher mortgage rates. Fewer than 4 in 10 non-homeowner households can afford a typical starter home, according to a recent LendingTree analysis.
"Society as a whole has to respond," Susan Wachter, a professor of real estate at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, told CBS News. "It's affordability across the board. It's not just the price of the home and the mortgage."
Gaudreau's plan seems to be paying off. After saving money on rent by living with her parents, she plans to move into a place of her own in November.
