Why More Millennials Are Choosing To Live At Home

Perhaps unsurprisingly more millennials are choosing to live at home with their parents, and for a longer stretch of time, according to a Pew Research Study.

The research behind why millennials are living at home has nothing to do with the common idea that the generation is lazy or ill prepared for the world, but rather, the reason why many young adults are living at home is simply because they have to.

A person working a full-time minimum wage job has about 12 counties in the entire U.S. to choose from if they want to be able to afford a modest one bedroom apartment, according to the Guardian.

This also applies to states who have voted to slowly increase the minimum wage, and most millennials who earn an average salary of $40,000 a year are still finding they have to spend more than the recommended 30 percent of their yearly income on rent if they want to live alone.

Between student loan debt, the cost of rent, and the other costs incurred every month to afford independent living, many millennials are finding they are just not able to swing the bill.

Take Los Angeles, for example. Most people have at least two other roommates in order to afford living on their own, and most are still paying upwards of $1,500 for their room!

That’s right. Their rent for just their bedroom in a shared apartment can cost them almost $1,500 a month, and that does not include utilities, car payment, insurance, phone bill, gas and parking spot (because in California you sometimes get charged for your parking spot in a safe garage).

Add it all up and you’re looking at a hefty monthly expense bill to live somewhat on your on.

So is it any surprise so many millennials are choosing to stay at home with their parents and save some cash for their future? Not at all, especially when the housing crisis and cost of living doesn’t support what the average working American earns a year.