[Puffer Fish]

(this article is mainly about the U.S., but the same issue is happening in several other countries)

Due to the shortages of lower priced housing options and high rent prices, the younger generation is increasingly having to pack together with roommates to be able to afford rent, if they are to move out of their parents home.

It's not surprising. Due to a shortage of lower priced housing options, young adults are having to cram together into housing situations. This of course can create all sorts of additional stresses.

While it's true that having roommates has always been popular among the younger adult population, the situation has changed and become more dire now. Many who do not want to live with roommates are finding themselves forced to do so.

Renting alone is too expensive for Gen Z

The article shows a map, "Share of renters who live alone by metro area, 2022"

The average age of someone living alone now is 50 years old, and it used to be 25 years old.
Generation Z is being squeezed out, and most have roommates and friends, spouses, even parents.
The typical homebuyer now is 50 years old.
87% of Gen Z lives with their parents because it's unaffordable to rent or buy right now.

Many young Americans are splitting steep rents that eat into their income. Meanwhile, more baby boomers have ditched homeownership for low-maintenance apartments.

The big picture: Squeezed Gen Z-ers are moving in together or leaving big cities.

Some are getting creative: Manhattan transplant Piper Phillips shared a one-bedroom apartment with her boyfriend and a friend.

More are returning to their childhood bedrooms: The number of Americans aged 25–34 living at home has jumped over 87% in the past two decades, per census data.

It's not just the East and West coasts that are out of reach. Solo living is unaffordable in many of the country's bigger cities, including Charlotte, N.C., and Charleston, S.C., according to The Economist's Carrie Bradshaw index.

Nationally, 17.6% of renters lived alone in 2022, census data shows.

The typical repeat homebuyer this year was 58, according to new data from the National Association of Realtors.

link to article
Renting alone is too expensive for Gen Z, Sami Sparber, Axios - Economy, updated Nov 21, 2023


It wasn't that long ago that being expected to move out and live on one's own at the age of 18 was common in the United States. Many parents had this attitude in the 1990s. Obviously it's become unrealistic today.

1 out of 10 young adults now experience homelessness each year in the U.S.

Gen Z has experienced exceptionally high poverty rates -- greater than those of millennials, Gen Xers and baby boomers during 2010 to 2021 (the years available on the KIDS COUNT Data Center). The share of zoomers living in poverty reached a peak of 23% in 2011 and 2012, then steadily fell to 17% -- about 11.3 million young people -- by 2021.​

What the Statistics Say About Generation Z, updated Nov 1, 2023. Annie. E. Casey Foundation

The high costs of housing are especially hurting those who did not buy their house yet and those who have not had time to get a foothold on the career ladder.

other related threads which might be of interest:
Rising rent costs force some Canadians to take on additional part-time jobs
Canada has a housing crisis, could be a warning for U.S.
Younger generation moving to rural regions because they cannot afford housing

[Dimetrodon]

This is what happens when you build an economy on pure capitalist greed.

[Puffer Fish]

This is what happens when you build an economy on pure capitalist greed.

It's also what happens when population growth increases too fast, faster than the economy and new housing growth can sustain it. All of that population growth in developed countries is being fueled by foreign immigration.
The young, who have less money, are having to compete for jobs and housing with adult immigrants.

Both of these groups do not have enough money to create new demand for housing. Building new homes costs money.
What typically happens is, over time, some wealthier middle class families build or buy new houses, and then some of the older homes left behind become available for lower income groups.

[Truth To Power]

This is what happens when you build an economy on pure capitalist greed.

Specifically, the greed of landowners. The greed of the welfare chiseler for unearned wealth is to the greed of the landowner as the brightness of the moon is to the brightness of the sun. Landowner greed has reliably destroyed every civilization that has not found a way to moderate it.

[Truth To Power]

It's also what happens when population growth increases too fast, faster than the economy and new housing growth can sustain it. All of that population growth in developed countries is being fueled by foreign immigration.

But it is still quite moderate in historical terms. The lack of affordable housing is caused exclusively by the massive subsidy to idle landowning as proved, repeat, PROVED by the fact that in cities where property tax rates are high and land prices are consequently low, like Detroit, you can buy a serviceable single-family house for a few months' median after-tax wages.

The young, who have less money, are having to compete for jobs and housing with adult immigrants.

Immigrants bring economic opportunity -- but they can't bring land. The economy is easily capable of producing ample good housing at affordable prices. It is LAND that CANNOT be produced, and it is the exorbitant, increasing, and unsustainable subsidy to idle landowning that has made housing unaffordable by making land astronomically expensive. If you pay a few thousand dollars for a building lot, you don't mind living in a house that you can build on it for <$100K. But when you have to pay $500K for the exact same lot, you aren't going to be willing to live on it in a house that you can build for $200K.

Both of these groups do not have enough money to create new demand for housing.

Wrong. They easily have enough money to build housing. They just can't afford the land because its idle ownership is so exorbitantly subsidized.

Building new homes costs money.

But they cost a lot more because the land to build them on costs so much.

What typically happens is, over time, some wealthier middle class families build or buy new houses, and then some of the older homes left behind become available for lower income groups.

Or more accurately, that would happen, if the exorbitant over-subsidization of idle landowning weren't making the land so astronomically expensive.

[Puffer Fish]

A sign of how bad the rental market in Toronto has become. (Toronto is the biggest city in Canada)

A resident in Toronto posted a listing looking for a fellow female tenant who is willing to share her queen sized bed for $900.

"Not even a king [size bed] where you can comfortably place a pillow barrier. How does that work? You just say goodnight roomie and then you roll over?," Anya Ettinger said.

Unfortunately, this is far from an isolated situation. According to Rentals.ca, roommate rental listings have surged in the last few months across Canada since renters are constantly looking for ways to save on housing costs.
Toronto even took the third spot for having the most expensive rent nationally, just behind Victoria and Burnaby, B.C, with an average rent of $2,614 for a one-bedroom unit.

The listing for a "shared bedroom in a lake-facing downtown condo."
"Looking for an easygoing female to share the master bedroom and the one queen-size bed"

A $1,900 deposit is also required to cover first and last month's rent and the cost of fob keys.
Also, required is identification or a Canadian visa or residency proof, along with pay slips and proof of employment and, of course, a background check.

https://nowtoronto.com/lifestyle/this-i ... 0-a-month/
'Toronto is Unhinged': Shared bed is latest questionable rental, Toronto Sun, Denette Wilford, Oct 25, 2023

[Puffer Fish]

The housing crisis is trapping adults in perpetual adolescence
opinion by Emma Revell, City AM, July 16, 2024

Older generations don't understand the emotional toll lack of housing is taking on young people who are having to postpone adult milestones, says Emma Revell.

It will not be news to readers but it is worth spelling out just how bad things are. The average house price in the UK in December 2023 was over £100,000 higher than a decade previously. In the year to March 2023, 45 per cent of first-time buyers used inheritance or help from their families to get on the housing ladder, almost double the 23 per cent in 2003. One in ten 30- to 34-year olds lives with their parents, in large part due to the rising cost of housing.

It is hard to quantify or explain to those older generations who never experienced it what the emotional toll of constantly postponing these adult milestones. I bought my house having spent the previous seven and a half years renting one room in a six-bedroom house on the edge of Zone 2. Lack of housing in major cities sees people like me and my former housemates, in our late 20s and 30s living a sort of perpetual university experience - arguing over whose turn it is to take out the bins or why you’ve tripped over someone else’s bike abandoned in the hallway.

I’ve been surprised how much of the joy of owning my own place has been in the little things: knowing if I was coming home to dirty dishes it was because I, not someone else, had left them in the sink or the hours I've already spent going back and forth to Ikea Greenwich is search of a forgotten kitchen utensil.​

link to free article here for limited time: The housing crisis is trapping adults in perpetual adolescence (msn.com)

[Puffer Fish]

Why Gen Zers aren't leaving the nest

At 24, David Nuñez still lives at home with his parents in Tampa, Florida. He chips in his share of the phone bill, the Netflix subscription, and the groceries, but thanks to his parents' generosity, he doesn't pay any rent. Contrary to what some might think, Nuñez isn't an unemployed freeloader -- he has a full-time job in marketing. But his $33,000 annual salary barely makes a dent in local rent prices; downtown, a one-bedroom costs more than $2,000 a month. He simply can't afford it.

"I'm fortunate enough to have a family that understands that it's kind of a rough time right now," he told me. Despite a strong job market, many Gen Zers are still relying on the bank of Mom and Dad to make ends meet. In a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center last fall, only 16% of 18- to 24-year-olds said they were completely financially independent, whereas in 1980, 32% of 22-year-olds could say the same.

In the past decade, the share of parents who say they have supported an adult child has doubled, to about 60% in 2023 from about 30% in 2013, according to Pew.

Some parents have reported spending an average of $1,400 a month helping their adult kids with groceries, tuition, and more.

"You're told throughout your life that you move out at 18 or 19 years old and you're kind of expected to have your own life already," Nuñez said. "But I only know one person in my friendship group who is not living with their parents anymore."

This new norm is leaving parents frazzled. Paying for college tuition is one thing, but many aren't sure how to handle their children remaining comfortably in the nest and relying on them for food, rent, and other expenses well beyond college. Nuñez's mother lived with her aunt before moving to America, so she's happy to let her son live with her. "I would rather you be here and know that you are OK," she told him. But for others, the aid comes with a question: At what point should parents cut the financial umbilical cord?

Despite being better educated than older generations, Gen Zers have faced significant financial hurdles.

For one, modest wage increases have been overshadowed by substantial student-loan debt. Over the past 20 years, the average student debt has more than doubled, to just over $37,000 per borrower. "More and more young people are seeking higher education," Monica Kirkpatrick Johnson, a professor of sociology at Washington State University, said. "They're staying in school longer, and while they're doing that, they are delaying their earning capacity."

The rising cost of housing is another barrier. Rent is taking up more and more of the budget: Zillow found that the average rent in America had gone up by 60% since 2015.

Many young adults are "entering jobs that do not allow them to be self-sufficient", says Kirkpatrick Johnson. Every generation tries to improve and do better than the last. In this perfect storm, many are opting to take shelter in their childhood homes. The share of 25- to 34-year-olds living with their parents in the US has climbed by 87% over the past two decades. Other milestones, like getting married and starting a family, are happening later and later. In his book "The Oxford Handbook of Emerging Adulthood," Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, a psychology professor at Clark University, defined adulthood as taking responsibility, making independent decisions, and becoming financially independent. But increasingly, people aren't meeting that definition until they're closer to 30. He decided that, in the modern economy and culture, the time between 18 and 29 when young adults are still getting their footing needed its own name, calling it "emerging adulthood."

Not everyone agrees. In a 2019 Pew Research survey, 64% of Americans said they believed young adults should be financially independent by 22.​

The article then covers different perspectives parents have with their young adult children, with some wanting to continue to provide any needed support and allowing their children to come back to live in their home if needed, with other parents completely withdrawing any financial support, believing it is best to make young adults figure out how to survive on their own.

Why Gen Zers aren't leaving the nest, Eve Upton-Clark, Business Insider, July 7, 2024
(free article here for limited time: Why Gen Zers aren't leaving the nest (msn.com) )


related thread: Housing affordability over time , (in Economics, 19 July 2023 )