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A fifth of Gen Zers are currently living with their parents or grandparents in the US, a record high according to analysis from John Burns Research and Consulting.
Gen Z are turning ‘Gen Freeload,’ for the meantime.
We’re all bored about hearing how oppressive the job market is: how entry-level jobs are being gobbled by AI, how wages don’t stack with real-world inflation, and how distant the typical milestones of our predecessors – marriage, home ownership, having kids – are becoming.
We’re not going to contribute to your nihilism, though. If anything, this article just might you feel a little better about your situation.
If there’s one statistic that sums up the state of arrested development Gen Z are in, it’s that nearly a fifth of 25 to 34-year-olds in the US are currently living with their parents or grandparents, according to analysis from John Burns Research and Consulting. This is a record high for the mid-range, older Gen Zers and younger millennials.
The two generations may perpetually mug eachother off, but their experiences of trying to get on the infamous ‘property ladder’ are very similar. Emerging from the shadow of 2008’s great recession, millennials were also overeducated, underemployed, and had to hunker down with the folks to stack their bread.
In 2016, approximately 16% of 25 to 34-year-olds still lived in the family home. While nearly half of baby boomers owned their own homes at 30, a meagre 33% of millennials were locked into a property purchase at the same age.
Now in their 40s, the oldest millennials own homes at roughly the same rate as their Gen X elders. That’s not to say the same scenario will play out with Gen Zers here, but it shows that grim economic factors aren’t always insurmountable and that playing the long game can work.
Unfortunately, that game is largely dependent on having a family home that will allow you to freeload and top up your savings each month, and that means listening to out-of-touch parents who will likely try to blame your effective homelessness on iced lattes and subscriptions.
Of the 7.5 million 25 to 34-year-olds living at home in the US, seven in 10 are reportedly employed – say Realtor.com. This implies that the biggest hurdle to getting a property is the property price itself. ‘This is a housing cost story, not a jobs story,’ surmised Hannah Hones, senior economist at Realtor.com.
If your parents made 40k in the 1990s, you’d need to make 170k to have the same lifestyle in 2026
So 170k is the new 40k
This should absolutely shock you— Rob Moore (@robprogressive) July 12, 2026
As for the price of rent, it jumped by nearly 30% between 2020 and 2024 globally, meaning it is now harder than ever to save while paying a landlord each month. Theoretically (and broadly), a US citizen earning a typical full-time wage would need around $88,000 for a standard two percent down payment on a basic home. And that’s before the small matter of tax, rent, healthcare, transport, student loans, groceries, and basic living costs.
