Attention recent graduates: You may now leave your parents’ basement

Quartz ^ | 10/24/2012 | Matt Philips

[SeekAndFind]

Things are looking up for the lost generation.

That unfortunate cohort of students ran smack into the Great Recession upon graduation. As a result, they’ve been forced to bed down with their parents for far too long.



Such doubling-up drove the number of new US households to remarkably low levels. From 1997 to 2007, the country created about 1.5 million new households a year. (A household, just so we’re clear, can mean a married or unmarried couple, a family with kids, a few roommates, or two dozen people in a hippie commune, as long as they all share living quarters; for the tortuous full definition of a household, see below*.) In the three years after the Great Recession hit, that number fell to an average of 500,000, according to economists from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. Things have turned around a bit, with 1.1 million households formed in 2011.



But it’s not as if those who are finally getting away from mom and dad are rushing into a McMansion. By many accounts the behavioral changes wrought by the Great Recession may be here to stay. That’s why in recent years, demand for rental housing has left single-family homes in the dust.



At Morgan Stanley, analysts expect that preference for renting, coupled with tight lending standards at banks, will keep construction of multi-family rental buildings up. “With homeownership rates declining and with household formations beginning to see some cyclical improvement, multi-family starts could run at levels well above the historic norm in coming years and make up a higher share of total starts,” wrote Morgan analysts recently. So if you’re living in a big old moth-eaten house that your grandparents left you, now is the time to max out some credit cards and convert it into apartments.

* From the US Census Bureau: “A household includes all the persons who occupy a housing unit. A housing unit is a house, an apartment, a mobile home, a group of rooms, or a single room that is occupied (or if vacant, is intended for occupancy) as separate living quarters. Separate living quarters are those in which the occupants live and eat separately from any other persons in the building and which have direct access from the outside of the building or through a common hall. The occupants may be a single family, one person living alone, two or more families living together, or any other group of related or unrelated persons who share living arrangements. (People not living in households are classified as living in group quarters.)”

[I want the USA back]

“Things are looking up a bit.” Wishful thinking. Wanting it to be true doesn’t make it so. The author of this article desperately wants everyone to think that the ordeal is over, and now they can safely vote for the One.

Lack of opportunity, particularly for White males past 55, started before 0bama, so he shouldn’t get all the blame. However, his policies are a continuation of the policies that got us into this mess in the first place, so he gets some of the blame.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Their next challenge will be facing cement-headed HR people asking them “Why is there a three-year gap in your resume?”

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Lack of opportunity, particularly for White males past 55, started before 0bama,

Let’s not blame Obama for this. AGEISM is rampant in America. If you’re 55 and over, better pray that you don’t get laid off or your skill sets are in demand.

However, this article is about recent college grads ( where over half can’t find decent jobs and as a result, they have to go back and live with mom and dad ). I can just imagine those kids who have college debts...

[Buckeye McFrog]

White males past 55, started before 0bama, so he shouldn’t get all the blame.

Dirty little secret is....main reason companies (particularly small business) are reluctant to hire gray hairs is that just a couple of them on the payroll in a small company can send the group health plan rates rocketing off into the stratosphere.

Granted Obamacare did nothing to address this.

[old and tired]

Their next challenge will be facing cement-headed HR people asking them “Why is there a three-year gap in your resume?”

There shouldn't be any three year gaps in a resume even if there was no paid employment during that time. Otherwise, it's safe to assume you were 1) sitting on your couch eating Doritoes or 2) on a 2 year bender followed by a year in rehab or 3) in a mental institution or 4) in jail.

[Buckeye McFrog]

“gap” as in “You have a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration but you’ve been waiting tables at Olive Garden”

[RochesterNYconservative]

I loved when Maine Governor LePage said “get a job!”

Look, I have always lived on my own since 17 (albeit college dorms may not count in your eyes). But even with a college degree, during hard economic times, I took whatever job it took so I would NOT have to live with my parents.

And I paid the price for it. I worked two jobs, no time to date or meet anyone, and I am single at 45. I bitter about that, but proud I made it on my own and now can live with actually a savings account as well as checking, and investments, which many of my fellow Gen X’ers don’t have.

[Altariel]

I think a temporary stay at home may be beneficial in some limited situations.

(For instance, your daughter just graduated and started her first job and wants to wipe out her $10,000 student loan debt before getting her first apartment), and shows you a barebone budget that allows her to wipe out that debt in a year or less)

Or one has an elderly relative in need of care in the evenings, and the relation can have a young 20 something grandchild live with the relative while working to temporarily save money on rent and assist the relative at night for a short time.

But Junior moving back in, letting Mommy do his laundry and cook his meals and have no plans or drive to get a job and move back out?

That’s not a healthy scenario.