Young adult headship rates decline
According to NAHB’s analysis of the American Community Survey data, reversing the post-pandemic rebound, the headship rates among young adults, the share of the population heading their own households, declined in 2024. The current rate of 43.7% marks a significant improvement from 2017, when only 40.2% of adults ages 25-34 headed their own households. The current headship rate remains far below the 1990s and early 2000s standard, when nearly 46% of young adults in this age group were household heads.
This low headship rate among young adults is tied in with cyclical economic constraints, including housing shortages, affordability pressures, labor market conditions, and credit tightening, long-term demographic and social trends. As a result, higher proportions of young adults are living with parents longer term or sharing housing with roommates, rather than buying their own home.
