A record 25.2 million Americans under 35 live with their parents — and seven in ten of those aged 25 to 34 have a job, which is why this is a housing story rather than a jobs story
【1】At twenty-seven, Anne moved back into her mother's house in a New Jersey suburb, and she describes the decision not as a retreat but as arithmetic she can actually solve.Working full time, she could pay rent or pay down her student loans, and living at home was the only way to do both.
【2】Her choice has become ordinary.A record 25.2 million Americans under 35 were living with a parent in 2025 — more than at any point on record, including the peak of the pandemic.At 33.0 per cent, the share of young adults at home sits just below its all-time high and shows no sign of easing, five years after the pandemic first made it a headline.
【3】The obvious explanation is that they cannot find work, and the data refuses it.Roughly seven in ten adults aged 25 to 34 living at home are employed — 71.1 per cent of those in their late twenties and 68.4 per cent of those in their early thirties.A third of the younger group holds a university degree, which was supposed to be the ticket out.
【4】Realtor.com, which compiled the figures, calls this a housing cost story rather than a jobs story, and the arithmetic behind that phrase is not subtle.The country has a deficit of roughly four million homes, the medianlisting price has reached $430,000 — 34.4 per cent above 2019 — and the median asking rent is $1,673 a month.
【5】The delay begins early and lasts longer than it used to.Among 18- to 24-year-olds, 57.6 per cent still live at home, and by age 24 the proportion has reached 35.2 per cent, against 29.6 per cent in 2019.For those aged 30 to 34 it is 12.7 per cent — small, but nearly double the 7.1 per cent of 2000, and about three million people.
【6】One cohort explains the pattern better than any single year, because it is the same people at two different stages of life.Adults now aged 28 and 29 caught the low mortgage rates of 2021 and have been leaving home fastest, while those behind them met the price surge of 2022 and 2023 and have not.
【7】Europe tells the same story in a different vocabulary.Germans call it Hotel Mama; in Britain 35 per cent of men and 22 per cent of women aged 20 to 35 still live with their parents, and in early 2026 the European Commission's housing plan conceded that stagnant wages had made leaving home a structural problem rather than a personal one.
【8】What is changing fastest is not the number but the meaning.In 1993, when George Costanza moved back in with his parents in Seinfeld, the plot read as the low point of a life; today the same move appears in policy reports as a rational reorganisation of timing.
【9】The empty nest, that quiet reward of late middle age, keeps being postponed by years rather than months.A society that measures adulthood by a front door of one's own will keep finding young people who fail the test; the useful question is not why they are not trying, but whether the arithmetic of leaving has been fixed at all.
原文出处:本文据美国房地产数据平台 Realtor.com Research 2026 年 6 月 18 日发布的报告《The Crowded Nest: More Adults Are Living With Their Parents》所载 2025 年数据(2520 万人、33.0%、缺口约 400 万套、挂牌中位价 43 万美元、租金中位 1673 美元、各年龄段同住率与就业率),并参照德国联邦统计局长期跟踪数据、英国国家统计局 2025 年统计、欧盟委员会 2026 年初《可负担住房计划》改写整理,供学习使用。
三、长难句分析(三步拆解法)
A record 25.2 million Americans under 35 were living with a parent in 2025 — more than at any point on record, including the peak of the pandemic.
主干:25.2 million Americans were living with a parent(主谓 + 现在分词进行时,表"持续处于某种居住状态")
前置定语:A record 25.2 million(record 作形容词"创纪录的",直接修饰数量,是英文数据报道的固定写法;类比 a record high)
后置定语:under 35(介词短语修饰 Americans,"35 岁以下";此处 35 指 35 岁,年龄表达省略 years old)
破折号补充:— more than at any point on record, including the peak of the pandemic —(比较结构承前省略 were living with a parent;on record "有记录以来";including 引出被比较的具体时点)
考点:record 作形容词;under + 年龄作后置定语;比较结构的省略;on record 固定搭配
The obvious explanation is that they cannot find work, and the data refuses it.
主干:The explanation is that ... and the data refuses it(两个分句由 and 连接:先立论,再当场否掉)
表语从句:that they cannot find work(that 引导,说明"解释"的具体内容;cannot 表"客观上做不到")
refuses 的引申:主语是 the data(抽象名词),refuse it 意为"不接受这个说法",不是"拒绝做某事"——抽象主语 + refuse 是评论性写作的常见组合
it 的指代:it 指前半句那个 explanation,不是 work;译成"这个说法"才不失真
考点:that 引导表语从句;refuse 的引申义;代词 it 回指整个分句内容;and 连接的"立—破"结构
译文:最省事的解释是他们找不到工作,而数据不接受这个说法。
Adults now aged 28 and 29 caught the low mortgage rates of 2021 and have been leaving home fastest, while those behind them met the price surge of 2022 and 2023 and have not.
主干:Adults caught the rates and have been leaving fastest, while those met the surge and have not(while 引出对照:一群人走成了,另一群没有)
后置定语:now aged 28 and 29(过去分词短语修饰 Adults;now 强调"如今这个年龄",暗示同一批人在不同年份的不同处境)
时态对照:caught(一般过去,指 2021 年那一次机会)/have been leaving(现在完成进行,指"此后一直在走")——两种时态交代了"因"与"果"
省略:and have not = and have not been leaving home fastest(承前省略,避免重复;英文对照句常这样收尾)
In 1993, when George Costanza moved back in with his parents in Seinfeld, the plot read as the low point of a life; today the same move appears in policy reports as a rational reorganisation of timing.
主干:the plot read as the low point; today the same move appears as a reorganisation(分号连接两个独立分句,构成"1993 年 vs 今天"的对照)
非限制性定语从句:when George Costanza moved back in with his parents in Seinfeld(when 引导,修饰 1993;move back in with sb 是"搬回去与某人同住"的固定说法)
read as 的用法:read 在此为不及物动词,"被读作、被理解为"(= be interpreted as);同类还有 read like(读起来像)
as 短语:as the low point of a life/as a rational reorganisation(两个 as 都是"作为、被当成",前后对照正是全段论点)
考点:when 引导非限制性定语从句;read as 的引申义;分号连接并列分句;as 短语表"身份/性质"
A society that measures adulthood by a front door of one's own will keep finding young people who fail the test; the useful question is not why they are not trying, but whether the arithmetic of leaving has been fixed at all.
主干:A society will keep finding young people; the question is not why ..., but whether ...(分号前是判断,分号后是把问题重新提问)
定语从句一:that measures adulthood by a front door of one's own(measure A by B "用 B 衡量 A";a front door of one's own "自己的一扇前门",借代"独立的住所")
定语从句二:who fail the test(修饰 young people;fail the test 在此不是"考试不及格",而是"通不过这场人生考核",与前半句的 measure 呼应)
not ... but ...:not why they are not trying, but whether ...(两个从句并列作表语;把"责怪年轻人"换成"追问结构",是全文的价值落点)
考点:两个限制性定语从句;measure A by B;借代手法;not ... but ... 的重心转移;whether 从句作表语
仿写题:仿照结尾句 "the useful question is not why they are not trying, but whether the arithmetic of leaving has been fixed at all."(用 not ... but ... 把"责怪个人"换成"追问结构",两个从句并列作表语),就"学生为什么不愿在课堂上提问"写一句你自己的判断句,要求把重心从"学生不积极"移到"课堂是否给了提问的空间"。