Millennials are once again moving in with their parents. This time it's due to crumbling finances as inflation takes its toll.

Now they’ll just get more 1-on-1 coddling from the parents who made them that way.

Great.

I moved out at 18 and never looked back. I worked and in the early days had a roommate but survived.

It's the least the boomers can do for not retiring and sucking up all the resources that were given to them and now no one else will ever benefit from.

Huh? Arent millenials like, 40 now?

Me too, R2. I wanted to get the hell away from them, though they weren't abusive or anything like that -- I just craved independence to be in charge of my own life rather than being told what to do. Young animals strike out on their own ASAP and their mothers encourage them, which strikes me as the natural order of things. But modern society doesn't seem to be as enlightened as the racoons....

The boomers did no such thing. Every generation is using up all the resources and the resources are being used up at an alarming rate right now. Old boomers are retired and in their 70s. Who will you assholes blame when the boomers are dead.

Staying near parents is normal in most cultures. The US is unusual in that 17/18 year olds are encouraged to study far away from their families. I don’t think it’s healthy.

Healthy or not, if people can't afford to live on their own, then they can't afford to.

What do people here want them to do? Live on the street?

R8, my point at R5 is that independence was vitally important to me and that doesn't seem to be the norm now. I worked low-paid office jobs that I didn't enjoy and was over-qualified for but were worth it so that I didn't have to live with my parents. If someone can't possibly get a job that supports him at all, then maybe he has no choice but to go back home -- but I wonder how much he really wants to get away vs. how much he's willing to sacrifice in order to do so.

Millennials need to learn about economics and not support people and policies that lead to a bad economy like the one we have had the last two years.

R9. Fair enough, and I personally enjoy my independence as well. Not everyone feels that need though. I don't see anything wrong with that. I guess it depends on the relationship you have with your family.

I do feel for the people who want that independence but can't get it because everything is so fucking expensive now. Housing especially.

R10. What policies specifically were you thinking of?

Lol. Again.

I'm 42. Even 10 years ago it was easy to fine an apartment that was decent or even nice and also affordable. Those days are over.

I really wanted to leave home too but when I left home you could rent an apt (a single apt) with minimum wages. I did it in 1970. Rents and home prices were affordable but now wages are low and rents and housing is out of reach for anyone young. The rich are gouging everyone. I wish people would wake up and get the guillotines out. Rich people's heads need to be rolling.

Everything is shifting. When our history is written, the Covid global pandemic will be a turning point in modern history. It affected every nation in the world one way or another. A globally momentous event. In its aftermath, some of these people will not have the their previous standard of living ever again. A few will somehow live beyond their dreams and many will seemingly lose it all. It's all shifting and reforming. Twenty years from now, we will look like a different planet in many ways.

Fake story. Inflation was the same in the early 80s and higher in the 70s. Conservative propaganda BS.

[italic]Change the locks, parents!

New Flash:

people have always lived with their families. It is legal to live with your family/loved ones.

The “your living in your parent’s basement” Quirp started with the invention of the basement. And the assholes that were saying that, where living in their parent’s castle. and if they fucked up, perhaps it was the dungeon, so there’s that.

R16, housing has outpaced inflation by 150% since 1970.

That 'strike out on your own" situation was only a feature in the Americas. In most cultures children traditionally lived with their parents until married, even if that marriage took place in one's 40s or 50s. (China, Italy, India, the Arab world). In some, at least the eldest son, his wife and his children also lived with the parents until they died.

But this phenomenon in the US is an indicator that rents have outpaced wages in many sections of the US. In my area, the real estate business blames it all on not enough housing units being added - but there are plenty of apartment buildings going up all over. There are just no apartment buildings being built with affordable rents, and no government programs to incentivize landlords to keep some units affordable. Nor is there any sort of rent stabilization being suggested.

If you were a Kennedy you could go live at the compound when you fucked up and no one thought anything of it. The British royals and every other rich family help their children. Only the wagies are supposed to be atomized and self-sufficient. It's bullshit propaganda and people need to stop buying it.

Unfettered Capitalism is a terrible system. Capitalism is the best economic model, but it depends on heavy regulation. Stupid people end up buying the company line of “regulation kills our business” instead of greed being the reason.

Most people don't like living with their parents, but it's the easier option for most people. There are people I know who go out on their own but it's usually for one of two reasons, 1) their situation at home is absolutely unlivable, abuse, violence, etc. 2) parent or step-parent wants them out. The ones who have the drive to leave and stay gone are the exception now. Most people try it and end up back home within a few years.

Why not live at home, save your money, and strike out when your bank account is flush? WTF is wrong with us here? It is logical. Smart.

My nephew is 22. He dropped out/paused college in 2020 (Fall semester). He couldn’t stand being back with his parents so moved south and took a job doing construction. He just bought a house so he’s doing something right.

R25 What is the point of that story?

My parent's generation (WW2) lived in multi-generational households. Both my parents grew up with both parents and grandparents and My father also had his two spinster aunts living with them. After the war people started living with just kids and a pair of adults. The nuclear family was born. I think we will probably go back to the old way of living with more generations living under the same roof again.

When I graduated from college in 1976, I was so burned out from 6 years of going to school and working that I got a job at a nice restaurant instead of starting a career. . My rent for a great 2 bedroom apartment in Newport Beach was $495 a month, and I was making $2000 a month. I thought I was a millionaire.

My favorite job ever, and the only reason I finally got a "real" job was because I knew that lifestyle wasn't sustainable. But working 6 hours a night and partying the rest of the time was great fun.

That certainly isn't possible in 2022.

Makes sense to move back in with Boomer parents. House can be renovated to add a bathroom.

Haven’t Millennials always been bad with saving money?

[quote] The boomers did no such thing. Every generation is using up all the resources and the resources are being used up at an alarming rate right now. Old boomers are retired and in their 70s. Who will you assholes blame when the boomers are dead.

You're right, my mistake. I forgot all the millennials that were buying houses and having their education supported by the G.I. Bill.

It's housing, not saving money. When the median house price is $1 million in the LA area and an apartment is $2000 plus, unless you have a great job you're screwed.

Replace “millennials” with “Americans”and you’re correct.

Most Americans live way above their means and want to cry how poor they are in their half million dollar McMansion.

Did all their unemployment $avings run out? They earned quite a lot sitting home during the pandemic.

The Great Resignation is turning into The Great Regret.

Beware of success. When you hear “we’re bringing jobs to x, y, z” that is going to be followed by property values going up and rents going up. People who live in SF can’t be shocked real estate is so high- you have a plethora of very high paying jobs all around! Same for NY, LA and every other major city. The more businesses the higher the property values are the higher the housing and rents are. You wanna tell landlords they can’t charge x amount when they own property in a job rich, high demand area? What is the answer? IDK. Allowing sky high rent isn’t the answer. Teachers, for one, can’t afford to live anywhere near where they work in many places due to this. Conservatives don’t GAF about a solution. Progressives do. If both sides would come together to solve this shit would get done but conservatives sold us out a long time ago.

R34 That is a very lazy, tired Russian Boris talking point. You think all these people sat at home, without insurance, on a measly pandemic assistance for 3 years now you dumb lazy fuck? Unemployment is at record lows you dumb fuck conservative moron. Go swig some more cheap Russian vodka (that’s all they have of value) and die in a ditch, bitch.

Their parents will go broke supporting their adult children’s dreams and phone bills.

Most cultures have generations living together.

If they are working and living at home, so what? Hopefully they contribute, even it's paying utilities.

r31, the baby boomers by DEFINITION were born after WWII, hence they were not getting their educations from the GI bill. However, possibly their fathers did. The first baby boomers arrived in college around 1962 - the last, around 1980. The boomers born after 1955 or 1956 missed out on on many of the "perks" of the earlier boomers - they missed all the fun of the late 60s, they came of age at the end of the Vietnam war, they graduated from college during the oil crisis and fiscal crises of the late 70s and early 80s,,their first opportunity to buy houses came when a mortgage was 9-12% and they lived through the collapse of most of the industry that provided good paying pensions. On the other hand, they were not drafted to go to Vietnam, which was huge. Only the first 10 years of the boomer generation reaped the full benefits of wealth accumulation. The second 10 years got the dregs. For gay people, the last 10 years of the boomer generation came of age just a few years before AIDS started to decimate the gay population. Many became infected in their early 20s. If they were lucky, they lived long enough to see the success of anti-viral therapy. On the other hand, most of the older gay boomers died in the AIDS epidemic, after having a grand old time from the mid 60s to the late 70s.

Mom, when you got to the store, can you buy me new sheets, pillows and towels, and also a fun bike? Promise that I will pay you later.

One thing that's often overlooked by GenX'ers is that Millennials' parents have much bigger houses than ours did. For GenX, "moving back in" meant (at best) a 10x12 bedroom and shared bathroom. For millennials, it's more likely to mean a rent free 600sf+ bonus room with its own bathroom and private entrance above the 3 or 4 car garage that's bigger than the entire APARTMENT said millennial had while living on their own... In a gated community where an average home starts at $1.5 million.

The fact is, if you grew up rich & end up barely lower middle class in today's economy, almost anything you can afford is going to totally suck and feel like a ghetto shithole compared to the neighborhood you grew up in. Plus, with no rent, you can afford a car that's at least as good as the one your parents bought you in high school.

For GenX, moving back in with our parents felt like a huge step down. For many millennials, it ends up being a massive step UP. Living with your parents isn't "cool", but living with your parents in an expensive gated neighborhood & driving a nice car is massively less-uncool than living on your own in relative poverty.

We're talking about a cohort between 26 and 41 years of age here people.

Something is very wrong with someone nearly thirty and certainly into their forties who does not have their act together financially enough to live on their own.

The tail end boomers many of you like to slag off were children during stagflation years (1970's), left high school and went into college during yet another decade of bad economic times (1980's including Black Monday of 1987), then had to survive various bits of economic upheavals of 1990's . 2000's weren't all strawberries and cream either; Enron, two terrorist attacks including 9/11/01, and so on.

Many of those boomers have had to scramble to find and keep employment Deal with age discrimination when trying to find a new job after their former employer went belly up or just did mass layoffs. Oh and don't forget whole "Lean" corporate movement coinciding with new technology that has wiped out tons of jobs, especially middle management and even upper lower.

Good number of boomers just got themselves back on their feet financially after credit crisis of 2007 then came covid pandemic of 2020.

So spare me this sad tale of woe and misery about how poor millennials are suffering.

What is happening simply repeats a pattern most millennials have known all their lives; parents who feel it is their moral duty to protect their "kids" from any and everything unpleasant.

Thank you R40.

Too many people will spot what they “feel” must be the truth without investigating to learn that it just ain’t so.

Clever people always find a way, you just have to think outside the box. I have a friend wirh a good job who was sick of paying crazy rent, and wanted to save more money.

He and his parents talked, and they converted the garage into a guesthouse. Friend pays the loan for the conversion (25% of his previous rent), and is saving more money. He has his privacy, and the parents have a built in dog sitter/housesitter.

Plus, the house is now worth considerably more. When he does move, parents can rent for $$$.

R42 while driving a nice car? Ahahahahahahahaha Do you know ANY millennials?

I don't see anything wrong with that. They can take care of the elderly, houses are for families.

R15. That was the plan all along.

I'm living with my in-laws. I'm Gen X. We don't mind it. They are loving and accepting so it works out. We're saving money for a house.

R40, believe it or not, VA loans (no one uses the GI term anymore) - 0% down for houses have been available for decades. Anyone who took advantage is farting through silk.

[quote]It's housing, not saving money. When the median house price is $1 million in the LA area and an apartment is $2000 plus, unless you have a great job you're screwed.

I'm guessing some people here haven't had to rent for a while.

I've seen rents skyrocket around me. That 900 a month apartment is now 1,500. That 1,400 a month apartment is now clear over 2,500.

I looked up my old apartment from 10 years ago which was 1,250 a month and it's now 3,600. It was a three bedroom we had multiple problems with ... like, you know, the ceiling falling in and rats from the restaurant downstairs making their way upstairs.

Many of my friends had their rent raised ridiculous amounts, if rent increases weren't outlined in the lease. Of those who had that in their leases, they stayed where they are because the jump from what they're paying now to what they'd be paying anywhere else was too steep.

Millennials are about to be in the same position GenXers have been in for a while: they'll have both kids AND parents to take care of.

People have been having kids several years later on average than they did during the Baby Boom, which means you have a lot of 40-year-olds with teenagers AND retired parents who are starting to suffer from a lot of health problems.

The easiest solution in this economy and with few or no social services available, let alone pensions or insurance that will pay for home health care, is for multiple generations to live together in one house. Even that's only available to people who can afford a 3-4 bedroom home, though. I don't believe it's true that most Millennials' parents have large multi-million dollar houses in gated communities; their parents are old GenX or young Boomer and they didn't have the wealth opportunities that older Boomers had.

A bunch of people crowded into one house is just the new normal now.

You're all supposed to forget that the economic post-war boom that allowed us to have separate homes and some privacy was considered a step toward a better future. You're supposed to think it's "the right thing to do" to have multiple generations of families in one home, like we did a century ago.

[quote]A bunch of people crowded into one house is just the new normal now.

Agree r52, this article leaves out a ton of factors and lot of people's views are dated.

Most people I know in the 26-41 age bracket are living with parents and extended family, because those family members also need the additional finances from their kids. If your boomer or X parents didn't have a good job or retirement set up, or have health issues, its mutually beneficial to have adult children around. Also, most millennials with kids get free child care with this arrangement. Everyone gets something.

The period in American history when most people could live one couple or one family to a house was a tiny blip in history and geography. Around the world, multi-generation households have always been the norm. They actually make sense in many ways.

It was nice (the American nuclear family in its spacioushouse with yard) while it lasted, but it was always a global outlier and prosperity is never guaranteed to last forever.

Single millennials, I presume?

Nobody loves you when you're down and out.

Boomers are dying off. The homes will come for millennials. People forget the life expectancy rose dramatically in the mid 20th century and the population burst. So the population decline is a good thing.

Yeah - if you havent looked at the rental market recently, it is insane. Shocking how much rent went up in such a short time. I do think it has to correct once all the millenials get over the post pandemic need to party and be in cities. The purchase market is tanking due to interest rates - rental market should slow down too. Also lots of talk about Airbnb hosts not being able to rent out places like last year. Possible those come back on LT rental market. Smart move to step away from market for a year and let it shake out. Assuming you can stand your parents - which I never could.

R26 my point is that he left a very expensive area with few job prospects especially for someone without a college degree and moved to a place where he could get a decent job and afford to live.

He could have stayed in college which he hated, graduated with a ton of debt and lived in shitty apartments with roommates for the next 20 years, or stayed in his parents’ cushy McMansion with them harping on his every move.

His parents are disappointed but I think he made a very smart decision to strike out on his own.

I'd rather give head to a cactus than move back in with my parents. The thought gives me physically ill.

^oh dear I meant makes me physically ill

Suicide would preferable.

R42 is delusional. The family you described would be subsidized their child’s rent,, not moving them back into their mansion/McMansion. The people moving home have working poor parents are parents just barely into the six-figure salary range. Enough to be comfortable but not enough to help with your child’s rent.

There's nothing terribly new here. Just a few years ago there were many in-depth articles at outlets like NYT about Boomers who'd been wrecked by the GFC in 2007-2008 and moved in with aging parents. When the parents died, the adult kids realized they couldn't afford to keep their houses and were quite indignant.

Younger people live even closer to the edge now, so crises will send even more people back home. You can argue about whether that has more to do with macroeconomic factors or the personal decisions these boomerang kids, but the debate won't do much to alter the trend.

The Under-40s can't grow up. They have no identity as adults. They were always The Kids.

It’s a shame trump fucked up covid so bad that when the country came back to life it caused inflation.

“According to the Redfin study, the income needed to buy a median-priced home in L.A. has soared by 40.7% in one year. In 2021, anyone looking to buy a home in the city of Angels needed to make $157,000 a year. However, now, that same person would need to make $64,000 more, or $221,000, to buy a median-priced home.Nov 30, 2022.”

That seems crazy for any age group.

It is insane. One of the problems has been that foreigners are buying up properties like crazy because they need to park their money somewhere. foreigners should not be allowed to buy housing in the U.S. for investment.

Am a tail-end Boomer. Was able to put myself through college in an expensive city. Although it wasn't easy, it was at least possible. My elderly parents retired to an affordable hicktown far away, so living with them was not an option (not that they would have wanted that), but it might have been a scream. They became more liberal, irreverent, sarcastic, and cranky later in life -- just like the children they raised. I miss them.

Decades later, a nephew has lived with me on and off for several years while in college, then grad school, then again when the economy tanked. He (and now his wife) are in their mid-30's, teach college, and are struggling. Not starving -- but I cringe at their lower quality of life and bleak future relative to when I was their age.

My partner and I will be retiring soon and need to sell the house. We'll move slightly outside our metro area to find a cheaper, larger home. A major factor is to be able to house certain nephews and/or nieces, if they want. Always thought I'd leave my estate to Greenpeace and make a difference, but I worry about the younger generation. The planet is dying, anyway. It's hard to imagine them struggling in tiny apartments for the rest of their lives. We already need rides to and from medical appointments and to bring in the groceries, change lightbulbs, and someone to listen to our shitty stories and bad jokes. And the less these skinny, idealistic vegans try to convert their chain-smoking, picked-queen guncles, the sooner they'll have the place all to themselves, so I think this could be a win-win.

Intergenerational living at its finest.

Freeloaders who will bitch and moan when they are informed that they will be expected to pay their own way, even though they are moving back home. Nothing like infringing on your parents privacy, and expecting a free ride.

The lucky ones are the parents who sold their homes and downsized to a one bedroom apartment.

I heard on a local radio show that you'd have to make at least $19.00/hr. in Ohio to afford a one-bedroom apartment. So I guess landlords do the math and say, "You don't earn enough to rent here".

R62, it depends how old they are. If they're 80+, they might very well decide it's in their own interest to encourage their kids to "move home" because they need someone else to be around them.

The fact is, if you've lived in a (Mc)mansion for decades, moving into a tiny assisted living place is going to totally suck compared to letting your kid(s) move back in and keeping the big house until you die. For millennials from upper middle class families, it's win-win... they instantly regain the social status they enjoyed in high school that comes from living in an expensive neighborhood they couldn't even fantasize about affording themselves, and their parents get to postpone assisted living for a few more years & keep the big house.

I know I sound like an eldergay — and I am at 56 — but it was a given that one would move into an apartment with roommates after high school or college. I lived without a phone or cable tv for years. Yes rents are high but people are too soft and not willing to go without until they can afford it.

R72 never did any of that

No phone, R72? Even with roommates, you couldn't afford the few dollars per month that a landline cost 30 years ago?

Sounds dubious.

I’d rather live in a cardboard box than live with my parents.

[quote]I moved out at 18 and never looked back. I worked and in the early days had a roommate but survived.

In what century? Seriously, I bet it wasn't in this century. And, what did you work at that allowed you to pay rent with one roomate? Were you going to college on loans because tuition had been outpacing wages by 20% for the previous decade and a half? Let's hear your actual story instead of your mythologizing of yourself.

As to some of the rest of you, in reality, the nuclear family is the unnatural invention of real estate profiteers post-WWII. The strike out on your own and make your way in the world half a country away from your family is Hollywood invented bullshit. Seventy percent of people in the US live within 15 minutes of the house they grew up in. Those of you looking down on people because you got out and never looked back are outliers and were able to do so because of privilege you are unwilling to acknowledge because you like your own myth too much. I'd also wager the lot of you have been able to pawn off your own family obligations to aging parents and extended family on other people. The very people you seem to count yourselves as better than.

Sounds like a fair amount of fantasy being posted here. No way R72 did any of that and I doubt anyone here would seriously live in a cardboard box rather than with their parents. Unless their parents are raging homophobes.

I appreciate your viewpoint R68, and your altruism. At least you sound like a real person. Did you ever have kids of your own? I know that not doing so can be a real relief for one's finances.

[quote]No way R72 did any of that and I doubt anyone here would seriously live in a cardboard box rather than with their parents. Unless their parents are raging homophobes.

Are you that naive? There are parents who want the kids out asap and won't have them in the house, or parents who are abusive, not just homophobic.

R78. Abusive, homophobic, whatever. I'm not discounting legitimate reasons to stay away from one's parents. I'm just saying that in the face of homelessness, "independence" tends to matter less.

And if your parents refuse to let you crash at their house then you aren't choosing to be homeless. That choice is made for you.

R79 I'm one of those people who would rather live on the streets than move back in with my parents even though they would have me. It's unbearable for me to be around them. In fact, when I was much younger I was technically homeless (living in hostels) for about 6 months, so I've already kind of proven it.

I don't believe this bullshit article at all.

Wow, r72 and r77, and others here are incredibly naive, and probably very young.

Owning a phone (yes, landline) and cable TV were very expensive back then (1970s-80s) and even making calls across town could cost 35 cents per minute, which was a lot. I did without those for years. And it wasn't a big deal. We had books and libraries. When I applied for jobs, I used my mailing address for written letter correspondence, or would list a friend's phone number. The friend would then visit to let me know to call the prospective employer, which I would do from their phone, or from something called a "phone booth". It was normal.

r77, no, I did not have kids "of my own," but certain circumstances brought us together. I just couldn't get pregnant, no matter how many times my boyfriends fucked my ass; this was not a conscious financial decision. The altruism is mutual. You seem to be sheltered. I wish you well and hope that your protective bubble doesn't burst, as I cannot afford a house with a 4th bedroom. But I could fix up a nice cot in the garage for you...

Most of my friends did everything they could to NOT ever have to deal with their parents again as adults. It's about dignity. We banded together. My beloved parents lived too far away from where I needed to be to get an education. I lived in a cot in a garage for a year and paid rent for that. I think many young people would or are are doing the same today to get started in their careers or finish college.

r76, you are just full of shit. Coddled and projecting much? You need to get out more and meet real people and listen to their experiences.

Not the Indian millennials in tech. My friend bought a house 2 years ago, bought another one last week for 1.3 million and a 75k Tesla. He’s 35 and a software engineer at AWS. That’s the norm. His life is gravy.

R82. How does any of that apply to millennials now? What do you suggest they cut out? Because phones aren't optional nowadays.

The fact is, is that the costs of things have shifted. TV, entertainment and other luxuries are relatively inexpensive ones. What's expensive nowadays is housing, student loans, and other necessities in a way it wasn't back in the '80s.

I don't even think sleeping in a cot in a garage is feasible in the modern era. And dignity is all well and good but in contemporary times it's not going to get you a house. I sympathize with those who stay at home and suffer a little short term indignities so they can actually afford to buy a house in the long-term. Especially those with kids who can enjoy not having to pay the exorbitant costs of childcare and can eventually give them a house to grow up in.

That's a decision I didn't make myself and I'm still renting, with all the joys that brings.

My mother turned my bedroom into her craft room the day after I left for college.

I’m the phoneless one at r whatever above and find it hard to believe that some of you find that hard to believe. For the first few years after college I did not have a phone. The hook up was over $100 and monthly was about $30 plus the cost of each call. I was pretty transient for a few years, renting rooms in apartments or taking an illegal sublet for a set period of time. It would have been too expensive to have to get a new phone every time I moved.

My mom gave me a calling card that I could use at pay phones or friends phones. Once I lived with a guy who had a phone and he wouldn’t let me use it even if I used the calling card. I did when he was out a few times and somehow he found out. He threatened to kill me if I ever touched the phone again and set elaborate booby traps after that. I got out of that place asap.

I was just starting in my career and had a part time job two nights a week and weekends on top of my full time job. I just needed a place to sleep. My limited free time was spent out living in NYC.

I could have stayed home, and financially it would have been a lot easier for me. It was a pride thing, it would have been very embarrassing to be living at home. I’m glad that growing up gay was so much easier for a lot of you but let me remind you that in the late 80s and early 90s there was no gay scene in suburbia and even the most liberal parents probably would not approve of bringing random hookups home.

[quote]The fact is, if you've lived in a (Mc)mansion for decades, moving into a tiny assisted living place is going to totally suck compared to letting your kid(s) move back in and keeping the big house until you die.

I've seen this play out many times, including within my extended family, and the problem is often that children imagine their parents are far wealthier than they are. They might not realize there's a reverse mortgage in the mix. Or they forget that everything's split evenly with their siblings in the will.

If they've never owned a house, they are likely clueless about the cost of upkeep or hazy on the sources of income their parents used to sustain their lifestyle (some of which die with the parents). It's an ideal scenario but for many it's built on a house of cards.

R43 = Trust fund baby.

Well here I am. Millennial and back at my parents (and the air is very tense in the house). My job doesn't pay enough for me to sustain astronomical rents for one room in a city where the cost of living is also skyrocketing. I want to be free and be on my own but sometimes life puts you in a corner and you gotta work with what you have.

Respect R89 - for recognizing and acknowledging the situation. Not ideal - but lucky to have the option when times are rough. Key is to keep the dream alive - of living on your own. Not sure how or when - but the real rate market will provide a window of opportunity at some point in the next few years. Save what you can, count pennies, don’t get Starbucks - just build some kind of cushion while living at home. If at all possible - and I know with many jobs now, it’s not enough for gas, car, basic phone, insurance.

Having just been to CA and seeing the hordes of homeless people, I thought “they must give up hope of ever having a home” because of the insane real estate market and limited opportunities for non-privileged people to make a livable wage today. There is an entrenched set of buyers in real estate that are winning the real estate game - just as there is in corporate capitalism. Wealth is accumulating to capital - not labor - to a degree not seen almost ever. Hypercapitalism gone global is decimating the opportunities for middle or lower class - especially in US and UK. Not sure how it ends - but something has got to give.

Not unsurprisingly, R82 had nothing to actually say in his own defense when presented with facts.

R84, I am not r82 so can’t speak to his experience. In 1990 my salary was $23,000 a year and my rent was $950 a month for a share. Today that would be the equivalent of $50,000 and $1900. I had very little disposable income and had multiple side hustles to make money so that I could have a bit of fun. I suppose I could have moved back home to my parents’ suburban house and lived with all the comforts of home and not had to work side jobs but it would have been boring as fuck. I created a nice life for myself and had an amazing experience living in NYC. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

If the people would have stuck with the anti-Wall Street/1% protests for more than a month we wouldn't be here now. Americans lack of focus and big picture thinking are killing us. Doesn't help have a hand held hypnotizing machine with us 24/7.