Mother’s Day 2016: More Millennials Are Living At Home With Mom, Study Finds

Ahead of Mother's Day, more and more millennials are gifting their mom the most precious thing of all: quality time with their offspring. An analysis from real estate and rental marketplace Zillow released Thursday found more people ages 24-34 in the United States are living at home with mom than at any time in the past decade.

Twenty-one percent of the age bracket lives at home with their mother, Zillow found. In 2005 that figure was just 13 percent. Rents have continued to rise, but income growth for young people has not kept pace. Zillow found that over the past year alone, rents went up almost 3 percent, while incomes have increased just 1.8 percent. The group also projected a 3 percent increase over the next 12 months to a median of more than $1,400 per month. Living at home has increasingly become a practical option.

"With today's high rents and lagging income growth, many young people are having trouble setting aside enough money to buy their own home, [thus] delaying home ownership," Zillow Chief Economist Dr. Svenja Gudell said in a press release. "Living with their parents may allow young people to continue to do things like continue their education, save enough money for first and last month's rent, or save for a down payment."

Zillow found El Paso, Texas, had the largest percentage of millennials crashing with their mothers at nearly 34 percent while Omaha, Nebraska, had the smallest figure at 11 percent. Culture, along with affordability, might factor into why millennials are living at home. Zillow found that many markets with a large share of young adults living at home also have large Hispanic communities, who are more likely to live in multigenerational households.

Rental rates have shown no signs of slowing, with renters often spending half their income, or more, to stay in their apartments. A Rent.com analysis late last year found that 88 percent of property managers raised their rent last year and that 68 percent expected to increase rates again in 2016, by an average of 8 percent.