By Christie Duffy
Correspondent
New Jersey is number one in the nation when it comes to the percent of young people still living at home with parents.
Forty percent of 18- to 34-year-olds in Jersey share a roof with mom and dad. That’s up from about a third in 1980.
Mike Allatta tried to move out.
“I was living paycheck to paycheck,” the Morris Plains resident said.
But ended up moving in with grandma and grandpa, which may not be the coolest.
“If you go out and you meet someone you wanna you know have your own place. You don’t wanna, you know, ‘Hey come to my roommate’s house,'” Allatta said.
But it is reality.
At 25 years old, Alltta’s got over $50,000 in student loans.
“Living with my grandparents gives me the ability to save up some money and put more money toward my student loans, which is a big dent every month,” he said.
Allatta is far from alone; 1.1 million New Jersey residents are cumulatively carrying around more than $28 million in federal student debt.
In some counties, as many as half of young people are choosing to stay at home. More than 51 percent are in Sussex County, followed by the northern suburbs surrounding New York City. In Morris where Allatta lives, 45 percent of young people live with their parents.
“It’s a struggle. Most of my friends live at home,” Allatta said.
He says the number one thing holding 20-somethings back as they try to get ahead is the pricey real estate here in New Jersey and if the right opportunity presents itself out of state, he said he would consider taking it so as to buy a place where he can get more for less.
“We’re losing people in the state of New Jersey, in just sheer numbers and that’s a problem,” said Rutgers University Assistant Finance and Economics Professor Arthur Guarino.
Jersey’s lacking job market is also driving the next generation away, says Guarino.
“I don’t see that this administration is doing that much to help New Jersey’s economy get better. Dealing with the state GDP, dealing with the employment and unemployment figures and poverty within the state of New Jersey. It’s not getting better I don’t think. I think it’s getting worse,” he said.
One point five percent of young adults are living below the poverty line than in decades past. Making only marginally more. The median salary for 20-somethings today is $41,000 dollars. Compare that to $38,000 over 30 years ago.