Gen Z is shacking up, but may be for more practical reasons
With the rising prices of small one-bedroom apartments reaching the national average of roughly $1,876, Gen Z is cohabitating at higher rates than previous generations. Between the ages of 18 to 24, more than 11 percent of couples are living together. That's around 3.2 million young adults. According to Bloomberg research, roughly 650,000 more people are living together since before the pandeemic
The top reasons for this trend? Love and money. With inflation driving up the cost of everything including food, gas, utilities and rent; Gen Z is turning to cohabitation to mitigate the cost. In fact, about one in four of the total respondents said that living with a partner allowed them to save over $1,000 per month.
A recent Realtor.com survey of over 3,000 participants showed that 42 percent of people who moved in with their romantic partner later regretted it. Couples cited moving too fast, making the break-up harder and the relationship simply not working out, as reasons for their regret.
In an interview with NPR, Galena Rhoades a clinical psychologist, states that cohabitating couples "face all of the same issues that dating couples face: things about friends and how much time to spend together. But then they also find the issues that married face: who does what around the house, parenting responsibilities and managing money together."
This being stated, finances cannot be the only reason for the drastic increase of cohabitation. For several decades, the once taboo idea of "shacking up" has become the norm. According to the Pew Research Center, young adults born after 1980 are more likely to cohabitate with their partner than in previous generations.
This could be due to how generations perceive the importance of family. Pew Research showed that only 32 percent of millennials with married parents believed that having a successful marriage is one of the most important things in life.
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