Going home again can make sense - and dollars, too

CHESAPEAKE

Angela Smith, 21, figures she's saving $700 a month.

Derek Maynard, 26, has socked away $5,000 since November and paid off more than $1,000 on his car and other debt.

The secret to their windfall is not a high-paying job, thriving investments or a vow never to drive again.

Instead, Smith and Maynard chose to move back in with their parents.

Their decision, an abomination to an earlier generation, has grown more common among young adults. Census figures show that the proportion of 25-year-olds living with their parents grew from 15 percent in 1970 to 22 percent in 2000.

The trend is part of what researchers are calling a "delayed transition to adulthood," with 20-somethings taking longer to graduate from college, land full-time jobs, get married and have children.

Analysts say the trend cuts across income levels, races, even countries, and isn't solely explained by tougher economic times. Still, Smith and Maynard said finances played a large role in their return home.

"I really wanted to focus on paying off student loans instead of paying hundreds of dollars a month in rent," said Smith, who graduated from Old Dominion University in May with a finance degree. Now a Mary Kay consultant, Smith hopes to amass enough money to launch a Christian rap ministry.

Maynard, who'd been living alone in Rochester, N.Y., where he grew up, got a job in the fall with U.S. Customs and Border Protection. He chose the Portsmouth office, partly because his mother and stepfather had moved to Hampton Roads in 2003. Maynard joined them in November.

"It was just an opportunity to get ahead again and save some money," he said. "I had a base where I could figure out where I was and get my bearings."

In both cases, their parents welcomed them back gleefully.

"Without gushing, I thought it was great," said Maynard's mother, Laurie White, chief communications officer for Tidewater Community College. "I've really missed both my kids since we moved here, and it's great to have at least one at home again."

Maynard and Smith said they benefited from already having a solid relationship with their parents. Still, there were adjustments to be made.

Maynard couldn't let his dirty dishes pile up anymore. He also lowered the volume on his music.

"I would probably do things later and louder if I were in my own home," he said.

And Smith no longer could have a gaggle of friends over to play cards late at night, as she did in her dorm at ODU. When she goes out in the evenings now, her father sometimes calls to check up on her.

"I wasn't used to that," Smith said. "In college, you can be out all night. Sometimes, I'm like, 'I'm OK, Dad. I'm a big girl.' But I'm grateful he's concerned."

Though Smith and Maynard come from different walks, their paths back home bear similarities:

Both moved to Chesapeake, Maynard to Riverwalk and Smith to Great Bridge. And they both moved into homes in which they didn't grow up.

Smith, whose father is in the Army, spent most of her childhood in Heidelberg, Germany. She enrolled at ODU in 2004 in part to be closer to other relatives. Her parents had moved to Chesapeake two years later.

Their parents haven't asked them to pay rent, though Smith said she might start chipping in in the fall. Smith expects her weekly pay from Mary Kay to average $300; Maynard said he makes less than $35,000 a year.

There's one big difference, though: Maynard is now back on his own.

He moved out last month to get an apartment in the Olde Towne section of Portsmouth. Last weekend, Maynard's girlfriend came down from Rochester to live with him.

When Maynard was at home, White was struck by her son's willingness to clean dishes without being asked, his consideration to call when he wouldn't be home for dinner.

"I thought, 'This kid grew up,' " she said.

Nor did Maynard complain when he had to forgo favorite shows such as "Family Guy" while watching TV with the family.

Smith also accommodates her parents' concerns: When she goes out, she tries to get back by midnight, and she knocks on her parents' bedroom door to let them know she's home safe.

She pitches in by cleaning the three bathrooms and vacuuming the house once a week.

She still tries to maintain touches of privacy: She keeps her favorite snack - sweet and salty almond bars - in her room, and she labels her container of green tea in the fridge to ward off other drinkers.

Her father is hardly complaining.

"The huge advantage is, I get to see Angela every day," Julius Smith said. "It's been a positive experience."

Cecilia Rouse, a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University, co-edited "The Price of Independence: The Economics of Early Adulthood," which was released in December and examines trends such as living with parents. Nowadays, the book's introduction says, the phenomenon is "widespread enough to be considered socially acceptable rather than an indicator of personal failure."

Rouse and other contributors wondered whether economics explained it all.

Not really.

"In the end," she said, "the book shows that the economy plays a small role, but it's not the smoking gun."

One contributor, University of Kentucky economist Aaron Yelowitz, examined housing and transportation costs.

"Both of them matter," he said, "but neither of them can explain the shift that we see across the decades."

"It's a big change," Yelowitz said of the trend. "I was kind of shocked, personally. Pretty much after I went to college, I never returned home."

So why are more young adults doing it now?

Rouse theorized that it might have to do with women's changing roles. With more working when their children are younger, perhaps they're more eager to spend time with them when they're grown.

Also, because "more people have become wealthier, with fewer children, they can invest more in the children they have," she said.

Angela Smith said her contemporaries might be motivated by "the fear of being tossed into the real world, out on your own, alone."

But it's tied to finances, too, she said.

Julius Smith, a master sergeant, said: "Economically, it's been tough for kids coming out of college. This gives them the opportunity to save and do a little bit more maturing."

Angela Smith plans to move out in a year, though no one has set a deadline. She and her father say her stay at home has strengthened their bond.

They watch the Home Channel, take walks and work out together. She also is active in True Love Ministries International, the Virginia Beach church where her father and mother, Janel, are co-pastors.

"You have people to come home to and a lot of support," Smith said, adding that being at home also "helps me to be more focused on my long-term goals."

For Derek Maynard, the time at home went smoothly, but independence is sweet.

"When you go home, you can say you're going to your own home," he said. "You live in your own place."

For his mother, it's the empty nest all over again.

"I walk into his room every day, and it's all quiet," Laurie White said. "There's that feeling that he's gone, but he's not gone that far, so that's good."

Philip Walzer, (757) 222-3864, phil.walzer@pilotonline.com