1 in 3 young adults were still living with their parents in 2025—that’s more than the during pandemic and they’re not even unemployed

Young Americans were told that good grades would unlock a six-figure salary, starter apartment, and independence from their parents. But now, entry-level professionals are clinging to their childhood bedrooms and pillaging their family fridges as more are extending their stay than ever before. A record 25.2 million U.S. adults under the age of 35 lived with their parents in 2025—representing about one in three young adults—according to a recent report from Reatlor.com. That’s even higher than the pandemic-era surge, when many budding professionals returned home to ride out the pandemic with their loved ones. However, it doesn’t mean that Gen Zers and young millennials are jobless and mooching off their family resources. In fact, around 70% of 25 to 34-year-olds who still live at home with their parents are actually employed, according to the report. Instead of kicking back, most workers are delaying their flight from the nest thanks to an affordability crisis pinching the wallets of everyday Americans. And as the lowest professionals on the corporate totem pole, their rock-bottom salaries, job instability, and lack of savings may be keeping them home. “The growth [of young generations living at home] is coming from working adults, not people waiting to find jobs,” Hannah Jones, senior economist at Realtor.com and author of the report, said in the study. “Something about their income level, debt load, or the cost of housing in their market is keeping them home despite steady employment.” America’s affordability crisis is crushing the independence of young workers Young professionals are up against a stormy transition into adult life: entry-level jobs are disappearing, wage bumps are stagnating, and cost-of-living is soaring. Now, it’s forced Gen Z into a professional reality of “stress and pressure and chaos” that their baby boomer parents wouldn’t even comprehend, according to podcaster Mel Robbins. And the financial burden is extending beyond the young workers clam