A new study finds “boomerang” moves by people in their mid- to late-20s can be economically problematic.
When young adults boomerang—that is, move back in with their parents after living independently—it’s often done to save on rent, child care, or other major expenses.
But boomerang moves in the US, which increased from 6.8 to 8.2% of all moves by people aged 24 to 29 between 2006 and 2019 (a year in which more than a quarter million individuals in this age bracket moved back home), can get in the way of a person’s economic health.
The reason is simple: a return to the roost frequently means relocation to a metro area with a weaker job market.
So finds the new study by Sewin Chan, economist and professor at NYU Wagner. Assisted by two authors, Katherine O’Regan of Wagner and Hsi-Ling Liao of the University of Chicago, Chan tapped granular data from the Census Bureau survey of the social, housing, and demographic characteristics of 3.5 million US households, revealing that participants in this internal migration often diminish their prospects for upward mobility.
Those who pull up stakes in one metro area to live with parents or guardians in another are typically motivated by a singular event: the loss of a job, say, or a divorce or separation. Boomerang moves can allow young adults to save money to attend or finish college or grad school, or to start a family or business in the future.
An increase in boomeranging is, in fact, an indicator of the economic realities facing young adults. It suggests that a growing number aren’t able to find jobs that pay a living wage in relatively high-cost areas, or that they face labor market disruptions like a job loss that necessitate a return to the safety net of the parental home.
As much as a boomerang move may make sense to a young adult, Chan’s study in the Journal of Urban Affairs shows that it often comes at the price of forgoing of an opportunity to move to an area with better employment prospects than the region where their parents live.
And that’s especially true for the many young adults whose parents are of modest means and reside in low-income areas.
“While a boomerang move can be a necessary and positive step for an individual, our findings show that for many, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, it can come at the cost of economic mobility,” comments Chan.
Here, Chan digs into the implications of the growing share of young adults on the move back to familiar surroundings:
How do you define “boomeranging” in this study?
Boomeranging refers to someone moving back into their parents’ home after a period of living independently. It’s a distinct and important type of internal migration in the US. While the phenomenon has received a good deal of attention over the years, it’s been difficult to study in geographical detail. We filled the gap by developing a new method to identify these moves, using a vast amount of granular Census Bureau data to identify spatial patterns in these moves, as well as how individual characteristics come into play.
What are the principal causes behind boomeranging?
Our research, along with the broader research literature, shows that boomeranging is typically tied to a big event in a person’s life. The parental home serves as a safety net during times of transition or disruption, such as a recent divorce or separation, a recent childbirth or a job loss. We were able to document a clear link between these precursor events and a higher likelihood that a move is a boomerang.
Our findings also showed that moves are disproportionately more likely to be boomerangs among more disadvantaged groups in terms of race, ethnicity, and education. While our study doesn’t directly compare generations, the fact that we’ve seen an increase in boomeranging in recent decades suggests that these factors may be more pronounced now than in the past, reflecting a changing economic and social landscape.
It seems boomeranging itself isn’t necessarily unhealthy.
That’s an excellent point: the literature does support the idea that boomeranging can be a rational, positive choice. Many young adults do move back home to save money, or gain access to childcare and other kinds of family support.
Our research, however, revealed a more complex picture by focusing on the geographic dimension of these moves. We found that boomerang moves, particularly those that involve relocating to a different metropolitan area, are more likely to land young adults in labor markets that are weaker than the ones they left. For many, a move back home means foregoing the opportunity to move to an area with better employment prospects. This suggests that while it can be a logical financial strategy for an individual, on a larger scale it can contribute to a slowdown in regional economic convergence—the spreading of economic vitality—and potentially perpetuate inequality across places.
Who did you find making the most boomerang moves?
We didn’t just look at who boomerangs, but also whether the re-anchoring was local (within a metro area) or long-distance (across metro areas). What we found was that the propensity to boomerang varies in complex ways along intersections of race and ethnicity, education, marital status, and presence of children.
For example, while prior research suggests that those with a college degree are less likely to boomerang, we discovered that census-designated Black and Hispanic college graduates who relocated from one metro area to another were more likely to be making a boomerang move than those among their counterparts from other ethnic and racial groups who choose to hit the road for another urban area.
We also noticed that recent life events like divorce or job loss are strong predictors of boomeranging.
Long-distance boomerang moves in particular are more likely to land young adults in weaker labor markets with higher rates of unemployment and lower average earnings. By following subgroups’ progressions through time with a synthetic cohort analysis, we saw that potential boomerang destinations are systematically worse for the long-term economic prospects of Black and Hispanic young adults, and people of all ethnicities who were raised in less-educated or lower-income families.
So the increase in boomerang moves among young adults appears to signal a lack of overall economic vitality?
An increase in boomeranging is, in fact, an indicator of the economic realities facing young adults. It suggests that a growing number aren’t able to find jobs that pay a living wage in relatively high-cost areas, or that they face labor market disruptions like a job loss that necessitate a return to the safety net of the parental home. Our finding that boomerang moves are more likely to result in a young adult relocating to a weaker labor market runs counter to the long-held notion of migration as a force for regional economic convergence, the process where less developed areas grow faster than wealthier ones, narrowing the economic development and income disparities. For many, the migration just isn’t a path to a better labor market, but a retreat in the face of a challenging economic landscape.
What did you find most surprising?
For me, what was most significant was that boomerangers end up in weaker labor markets, with reduced opportunities. In addition, it was surprising to find that among all those who relocated across metro areas, college-educated Black and Hispanic young adults are more likely to boomerang. This finding challenges the common assumption that education is a universal path to opportunity-enhancing migration. It instead suggests that even highly educated individuals may face challenges that lead to a return to the parental home, and that this move, while providing a safety net, can still land them in weaker labor markets. And it speaks to a social and economic reality where place-based disadvantage can be passed down from one generation to the next.
What’s the impact of this phenomenon, and what can be done?
What’s at stake, as I see it, is the fundamental pathway to independence and economic stability. For many young adults, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, it can come at the cost of economic mobility. That’s what our findings show.
And for the parents of this generation, while they may gain benefits like time with their children and grandchildren, they may also bear significant costs, including financial strain and increased emotional stress.
Finally, on a broader, societal level, boomeranging challenges the idea of migration as a force for regional economic convergence. Instead of young people moving to where opportunity is, they are moving back to where a social safety net exists. Place-based policies that aim to improve economic opportunities and reduce inequality in all areas are more critical than ever.
Source: NYU
