Nearly a quarter of Americans said they moved or know someone who moved due to COVID-19.
According to a survey from Pew Research Center, 3% of respondents said they moved permanently because of the pandemic, 6% said someone moved into their household for the same reason and 14% who did not personally relocate said they know someone else who did.
It was young adults, ages 18 to 29, who said they moved due to the pandemic, the highest of any other age group at 37%, Pew said.
Meanwhile, a survey from RENTCafe revealed that 14% of this generation was planning on buying a home this year prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, those plans went out the door with some of this group opting instead to go back to their parents’ house as a result of the pandemic.
“Young adults are among the groups most affected by pandemic-related job losses and by the shutdown of college housing in early spring,” the report stated.
RENTCafe said that now, because of the pandemic, 23% of respondents in general will no longer buy a home. Still, 68% of older Millennials said they still plan to become homeowners within the next five years.
Only 9% of adults ages 65 and older said they know someone who relocated, but 22% of young adults said the same, according to Pew.
Of the adults who moved due to the pandemic, 28% said it was because they wanted to reduce their chances of contracting the virus, while 23% said it was because their college campus closed and 20% said they wanted to be with family. Another 18% said the most important reason was due to either job loss (8%) or another money-related reason (10%).
The pandemic also disrupted plans for 43% of renters who wanted to purchase a home this year, according to RENTCafe.
Similarly, 43% of would-be-homebuyers said they cancelled their plans to relocate because of economic uncertainty.
Coming full circle, Pew said that 47% of respondents said their adult child or spouse of an adult child had moved in, while 18% of respondents said their parent-in-law had moved in.
Meanwhile, 26% said a friend had come to live with them while 17% said a romantic partner moved in.
Out of the 61% of adults who moved and relocated to a family member’s home, 41% said they moved in with their parents or in-laws, 4% moved in with an adult child or in-law and 16% went to live with another relative.
Interestingly, even though some moved out of their own dwellings into someone else’s, 13% of respondents relocated to a second home or destination home, Pew said. Also, 7% moved in with a friend and another 7% moved into an apartment or even a hotel room. Just 9% moved into a newly purchased home or rental home.
One of the respondents even said they had moved back to their main home from their vacation home.
