According to a recent Pew Market Study, the number of young adults living with their parents hit an all-time high in July in 2020.
The Pew study reported that 52% of young adults resided with one or both of their parents. This is up 10% from the February report, which indicated that 47% of young adults were living at home.
Breaking this down to the hard numbers, this 52% translates into 26.6 million young adults. This is an increase of 2.6 million adults from February.
Obviously the pandemic had a significant impact upon this number, but still the 47% figure is incredibly high.
These metrics are not racial or ethnically divided: the number of young adults living at home is relatively equal across all demographics.
The Pew study found that growth was the sharpest for young adults in the age 18 to 24 category.
These metrics date back to 1976 when such CPS data was first kept.
The Pew study stated, “Before 2020, the highest measured value was in the 1940 census at the end of the Great Depression, when 48% of young adults lived with their parents.”
The Pew report also indicated that the monthly share of young adults living with their parents has been above 50% since April of 2020.
Some of these numbers can also be attributed to young adults moving back at home from densely populated cities which had been placed under lockdown restrictions. This does explain how the Northeast had become the region with the highest share of young adults live with their parents, a total of 57%. The South also experienced a surge in young adults moving back home with their parents, increasing from 46% to 52%.
Contraction in Number of New Households Formed
As the urban exodus took hold of the economy and the real estate market, the net effect will be a pent-up demand for single family homes and for apartments, most likely in less populated areas.
According to the Pew study, between February and July of 2020, the number of households headed by an 18 to 29-year-old declined by 1.9 million, or 12%. This translates into a reduction of households headed by young adults from 15.8 million to 13.9 million.
Additionally it is the younger adults who appear to have lost their jobs due to the pandemic, thus their move back home.
How this will affect the real estate market will solely depend upon where the job market re-emerges geographically. Many businesses have taken the pandemics lockdown as an opportunity to move some or all of their operations out of heavily or densely populated urban regions. These regions tend to be very expensive and highly taxed. It is very possible that the next surge will only make housing in the suburbs more expensive because of the demand for less densely populated locations.
The impact is clearly being felt in Manhattan, where vacant apartments have skyrocketed from roughly 5,600 to 15,000 according to Douglas Elliman.
- The number of empty rental apartments in Manhattan nearly tripled compared from 2019
- The 15,000 empty units reported in August is the largest ever recorded since data started being collected 14 years ago
- Expectations are not high in hopes for a fall season rebound
If you have any questions about this information or title insurance, please contact Ralph Aponte: 732.914.1400.
Counsellors Title Agency, www.counsellorstitle.net, founded in 1996, is one of New Jersey’s most respected title agencies, serving all 21 New Jersey counties with title insurance, clearing title, escrow, tidelands searches, and closing and settlement services for commercial or industrial properties, waterfront properties and marinas, condominiums, townhouses or residential single family homes. Counsellors Title also features its own Attorney Settlement Assistance Program™ [ASAP], which is an individual resource customized to fit the needs specifically of real estate attorneys, including, Documentation, Preparation, Disbursement of Funds, Attendance at Closing, HUD Preparation or Post-Closing Matters.
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