As housing, subscriptions and everyday costs rise, some families are finding that sharing expenses across generations makes surprisingly practical sense.
1. A Home
Nearly half of Americans under 30—49%—lived with a parent in 2025, according to the Federal Reserve. That’s up 12 percentage points from 2019, turning the family home into something more like a shared financial base for longer.
2. Household Bills
Sharing doesn’t always mean free rent. Pew found that only 9% of adult children living with parents said they paid nothing toward groceries, utilities or other household expenses. Families are increasingly splitting costs instead of treating adulthood as a clean financial break.
3. Transportation
Cars are another easy place for families to overlap. A parent may keep the household’s existing vehicle while an adult child uses it for commuting, school or errands—especially when maintaining another car means another payment, insurance bill and set of expenses.
4. Insurance
Parents helping adult children with insurance is hardly new, but multigenerational households can make the arrangement even more valuable. NEFE found that 23% of adults providing financial support to adult children or grandchildren helped with insurance coverage.
5. Financial Emergencies
Family support increasingly works like an informal safety net. NEFE found that 17% of adults helping adult children or grandchildren had provided assistance with a financial emergency, while 44% helped with living expenses.
6. Caregiving
The exchange can run in both directions. In 2025, 19% of U.S. adults lived with an adult child, while 15% lived with a parent. Some families are effectively combining housing and caregiving under one roof.
Sources
- Federal Reserve — Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2025 (Federal Reserve)
- Pew Research Center — The Experiences of Adults in Multigenerational Households
- National Endowment for Financial Education — Multigenerational Home Poll Analysis
