Editor's Note: For the last few months, RANGE has been working with the junior and senior students at The Community School to help each of them develop a piece of journalistic writing about a local or recent news topic that interested them. As they reached the end of the capstone project, we selected a few articles that we professionally edited and will be publishing on our website in the coming weeks as part of a series we're calling The Young RANGE. Through this project we've been constantly in awe at the level of student engagement, the quality of work and the RANGE of topics the youth were passionate about. We're beyond excited to introduce you to these students and their work, continuing with today's piece on the housing market and how youth are trying to navigate it. - Erin Sellers
I come from a household with over 11 people currently living in it. Seven of those people are adults, the rest are children.
Despite common misconceptions, my adult siblings are not freeloaders just because they’re still choosing to live with our parents. They make an effort to contribute to bills, and many obstacles are preventing them from moving into their own spaces.
My older sister has a condition called hyperthyroidism, this can cause intense symptoms anywhere and anytime without warning. Shortly after giving her a diagnosis, her primary care doctor retired, which left her struggling to navigate the complexities of medicating her condition. As a result, her symptoms come and go, and often cut short the amount of hours she works.
This has put her between a rock and a hard place: working more hours puts her health at risk, and doesn’t guarantee a stable enough income to allow her to rent her own apartment.
One of my other sisters has no underlying health conditions but is still struggling to move out. She and her friend are currently searching for apartments within their budget, but with few options and a bad experience with a potential landlord who ghosted them, they were left disheartened.
My family is not alone in this. According to yr.media, newer generations have been shown to rely more on their parents than previous generations due to many financial factors including soaring student debt and housing costs. A recent study conducted by Intuit aligned with that data, showing that “approximately 31% of Gen Z adults, born between 1996 and 2012, are residing with their parents due to financial constraints preventing them from purchasing or renting their accommodation.” The lack of financial independence isn’t limited to Gen Z-ers — nearly 50% of millennials are financially dependent on their parents as well.
In Washington, these growing rates of financial dependence are shooting up in tandem with housing prices. To expect any chance in the Washington housing market, wage earners must obtain at least $156,814 or higher annually, states entrepreneur.com. Home prices are estimated to have increased 5.5% across the nation in 2023, but Washington is feeling drastic effects — it’s now the fifth most unaffordable state to buy a house in.
These numbers leave my generation struggling to expect any chance of obtaining independence, and, according to a survey conducted by Experian, this growing issue has left 62% of Gen Z-ers and 70% of millennials ashamed of their reliance on their parents for financial help.
As an upcoming senior, I definitely face a lot of worries for my future beyond high school. I feel a little unprepared as someone who can't prioritize testing for their driver's license in my teen years due to financial constraints my family deals with on a daily basis. We're a big family, which I think is great but also carries a lot of burdens.
I feel behind and a little lost for how I can prepare for adulthood and I wish people understood more of the constraints that financial troubles can bring from person to person, and how that limits their decisions for the future.
Residing with parents after high school shouldn't be frowned upon, and everyone's journey moves at a different pace. People living with their parents simply because they have no choice. In the face of financial adversity, we should work towards providing young people greater chances of financial support and opportunity.
