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More reasons keep Generation Y housebound
by Jingjing Zhang

After the result of a Housing Industry Association survey being announced two months ago, Bernard Salt, a demographer in Sydney, says there are some other reasons besides expensive house rental keep the trend that Generation Y live with their family going up.

“I still live with my parents and as well as a lot of my friends…” said Lucy, 22-year-old postgraduate students in the University of Sydney. Most of Yers in Australia prefer to stay with families if they are in the same city. Nowadays, the average age of youth who stay at home is 24 years old, which has been 4 years older than that in 1978 (Salt, 2008). People who were born from 1982 to 2000 refuse to leave their parents before 30s or marriage, especially in some large cities such as Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Financial support is one of the main reasons in Yers’ choice of staying at home. Completing education in universities or colleges becomes the first life expectation and an effective way to escape the realistic society. Consequently, Yers need their parents to pay the tuition fees until their graduation. Although some of them have moved out because the far way from home to institutions, they still get financial support from parents and they inveterately consider the family will be the support system at any time.

Secondly, for the influence by an array of factors from youth unemployment rates and their different recreational pursuits to other generations, Yers have an increasingly short-term concern. The research shows that their top life expectation is to complete their education (94%) with not too many plans after this (McCrindle, 2008). It means that they are confused about the future and have no idea what to do if leaving their familiar living environment and their parents.

On the other hand, baby boomers should be responsible for this phenomenon. Shrinking generation gap promotes the relationship between parents and their children. Today, parents are much less concerned with matters of sexual propriety, which decreases the amount of youth who plan to move out to live with their boyfriends or girlfriends. The survey presents that 50-something mothers are happy to listen to their 20-something daughter's love life (Salt, 2008). The relationship between two generations is like friends rather than parents and children. Also, the development of economy makes a lot of modern families have some combination of large home and an above average income, which provides the material foundation for adult children live in the family home.

See: Rising rents keep Generation Y housebound [1]