Rising rents push more noncollege men back home, study says

Higher rents are pushing more U.S. men, especially those without college degrees, into their parents’ homes, according to a working paper by Gabrielle Penrose, a graduate student fellow at the American Institute for Boys and Men. The paper says the shift is tied to weaker labor force participation among noncollege men, a group economists already see as under pressure.

Penrose’s research, based on six decades of U.S. Census data, finds that men are close to twice as likely as women to live with parents. The paper says 16% of men without college degrees now live at home, compared with 8% of men who have college degrees.

Real rents in the United States have climbed 150% since 1960, while wages for men without college degrees have changed little, according to Penrose’s paper. The study points to automation, globalization and the decline of manufacturing as forces weighing on those men’s earnings.

Rent increases and adult children at home

Penrose’s paper estimates that a 10% rise in local rents increases the chance that a man without a college degree lives with his parents by 1.1 percentage points. To isolate housing costs from local job conditions, Penrose used geographic barriers such as mountains, coastlines and lakes, which can limit construction and tighten housing supply.

Penrose told Fortune that in some places, homes cost more because building is constrained by geography rather than because local workers earn more. Scott Winship, a senior fellow and director of the Center on Opportunity and Social Mobility at the American Enterprise Institute, told Fortune that higher-cost cities would be expected to have more adults living at home because they are less affordable.

The paper also says parents are more able to house adult children than in earlier generations. Penrose told Fortune that baby boomer parents often have more housing wealth, while their sons’ earnings have weakened.

Brandi Snowden, director of member and consumer survey research at the National Association of Realtors, told Fortune that baby boomers remain the largest share of recent homebuyers. Citing NAR’s 2026 Generation Trends report, Snowden said one-quarter of baby boomers recently bought a multigenerational home, in part to house relatives or adult children.

Labor force effects

The share of men ages 25 to 45 living with parents has risen from 7% in the 1960s to 12% today, according to Penrose’s paper. Women’s rate is 7%, the paper says, though Penrose told Fortune that women without college degrees and without children at home show patterns much closer to men’s.

Penrose’s paper says men who live with parents are 20 percentage points less likely to be in the labor force than men living independently. It also links a 10% rent increase to a 0.5 percentage point decline in labor force participation and says early estimates suggest housing costs could account for about one-third of the employment decline among noncollege men.

Among noncollege men in their early 30s, one in five live with parents, according to the paper. At age 40, the rate is about 14%. Among nonworking men living at home, one-quarter have never had a job, up from one-fifth in 1980, the paper says.

Winship told Fortune that noncollege men today may be more disadvantaged than earlier cohorts because a larger share of young adults now earn bachelor’s degrees. He said that adults living at home into their 20s or 30s may also face other barriers to finding or keeping work.

Housing policy and marriage

Penrose’s paper argues that zoning rules and limits on construction can weaken labor force participation by making independent living more expensive. Penrose told Fortune that cheaper housing in high-cost cities such as New York could raise participation among men, especially those without college degrees.

Winship told Fortune that expensive cities such as New York and San Francisco often offer stronger job opportunities but also have high rents. He pointed to land-use rules and zoning limits as policy areas that deserve attention.

Winship also said the decline in marriage may be a key part of the issue. He told Fortune that married men in earlier generations could better absorb high housing costs, while single working-class men face a heavier burden when rents rise.

This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.