Nearly Half of Recent College Graduates Have Moved Back In With Their Parents

Forty-nine percent of recent college graduates moved back in with their parents after finishing school, and 46 percent of those are still there. The figures come from a survey of 1,000 Gen Z adults that Clever Real Estate, a discount brokerage, ran in late June, and the graduate group covers anyone who took a degree in the past five years rather than this summer's leavers alone.

Nearly Half of All Under-30s Live With a Parent, Up 12 Points Since 2019

The graduate survey is one snapshot of a wider pattern. The Federal Reserve's Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2025 covers every adult, and it found that 49 percent of those under 30 lived with a parent in 2025, 6 percentage points above 2022 and 12 points above 2019. The two surveys describe different groups, all young adults in one case and recent graduates in the other, and they happen to land on the same number, though only the Fed's comes with a run of years behind it.

Fifteen percent of adults under 30 were not working and said that not being able to find work was part of the reason. Across all adults, 42 percent called finding or keeping a job a minor or major concern, up from 37 percent the year before. Forty-seven percent of 18 to 29 year olds took money from someone outside their own household in the previous twelve months, most often for a phone bill, general expenses, or rent, mortgage and utilities.

Most Graduates Who Move Home Pay No Rent

Fifty-nine percent of graduates who move back live rent free. Of the minority who pay something, 36 percent pay their parents less than $500 a month. The support runs wider than the room: 59 percent of Gen Z adults get some money from their parents, rising to 76 percent of those living at home, and 31 percent say their parents cover every bill. Among current students, parents pay the housing for 46 percent, groceries and gas for 41 percent, tuition for 34 percent, and nights out for 23 percent. Half of students and 46 percent of recent graduates say they could not afford the life they are living without that help.

If you are working out whether to charge rent, the survey gives you the going rate rather than an answer. Most households charge nothing, and most of those that do charge stay under $500 a month.

The Savings Gap Runs Three to One, and It Cannot Say Which Came First

Gen Z adults living with their parents report a median of $4,000 saved. Those living independently report $12,000. The gap is real, but the direction of it is not something a survey can settle: young adults who can already afford a place of their own are also the ones likelier to have money behind them, so the numbers cannot show whether staying at home slows the saving or whether thin savings are what kept them at home. What the survey does pin down is the motive. Fifty-eight percent of those who moved home give the cost of living as a reason and 52 percent say they are trying to save for the future, ahead of not being able to find a job at 34 percent, a job loss or financial setback at 27 percent, and paying off debt at 25 percent.

Nearly Three in Ten Students Expect a Stay of More Than Two Years

Half of recent graduates became financially independent within a year of finishing. Among students still studying, 29 percent think that if they moved home after graduating they would be there more than two years, and 16 percent expect more than three. Another 36 percent of recent graduates who have already moved out worry they will end up back. Because the survey's graduate group spans five years, the 46 percent still at home covers everything from a few months to nearly five years, and there is no way to read an average stay out of it.

Three in Four Students Living at Home Report Tension With Their Parents

Seventy-three percent of students living at home report tension with their parents, 26 percent say their parents do not respect their privacy, and 25 percent have lied about their living situation. Some of the pressure arrives from outside the house: 23 percent of Gen Z say they look down on people their own age who live with their parents. Among current students, 36 percent work part time, 27 percent work full time and 17 percent pick up gig work, while 14 percent do not work at all.

More Expect to Move Home Again Than to Buy

Fifty-two percent of Gen Z say they are likelier to move back in with their parents in the next five years than to buy a place of their own, a view held by 60 percent of current students and 43 percent of recent graduates. Fifty-eight percent say they are rooting for a housing market crash so they could afford to buy. Ninety-five percent still believe they will own a home one day, though 57 percent doubt they will manage it at the age their parents did, rising to 67 percent among those carrying student debt.