u/McFatty7

• Living with parents has become financially rational, not a social failure. High housing costs, rent spikes, and student debt have pushed many young adults to move back home.
• Nearly half of Americans under 30 now live with a parent, according to the Federal Reserve’s survey data referenced in the visible portion.
• The stigma has faded. Social media trends like “stay‑at‑home daughters/sons” normalize and even celebrate the arrangement.
• Economic pressure reshapes adulthood milestones — delaying moving out, family formation, and home buying.
• Parents and adult children are adjusting to new norms, negotiating boundaries, chores, rent contributions, and privacy.
• Multigenerational living is influencing housing design, including increased interest in accessory dwelling units (ADUs).
• Personal stories highlight the trend:
  • Young adults moving home after job loss or breakups
  • Families treating it as a long‑term arrangement
  • Adult children helping with household tasks instead of paying full rent
  • Parents delaying downsizing because kids stay longer

• Property taxes are surging and destabilizing budgets. 76% of homeowners say taxes ran higher than expected, two‑thirds were shocked by their latest bill, and 40% have considered moving because of them.
• Insurance premiums have exploded 46% since 2021, rising 12% in 2025, and projected to rise another 4% in 2026; disaster‑exposed states like Florida face ~$8,500 premiums.
• The “fixed” mortgage isn’t fixed anymore. Escrow payments jump annually because taxes and insurance reset. Homeowners only learn of increases when the escrow letter arrives.
• Maintenance is the highest hidden cost. Total hidden homeownership costs exceed $21,000/year, with maintenance alone averaging $8,808, often more than the mortgage itself.
• Condo/HOA fees escalate over time, especially in luxury buildings where maintaining a certain standard of living adds unexpected recurring expenses.
• Recurring costs determine long‑term affordability. The down payment and rate get buyers in the door, but taxes, insurance, maintenance, utilities, and assessments determine whether they can afford to stay.

• The Big 4 “finishing school” model is collapsing. Firms are no longer seen as elite identity‑shaping institutions, but rather just another large employer.
• Offshoring has quietly gutted early‑career development, removing the peer‑pressure ecosystem that once socialized auditors into overwork and presenteeism.
• Academic research shows the old system relied on implicit disciplinary power. Auditors internalized long hours, constant visibility, and collective responsibility without explicit rules.
• Recruiting power has flipped. Applicant pools have shrunk so dramatically that firms now hire nearly everyone, dropping 3–4 traditional “required boxes.”
• Prestige and selectivity have eroded, making new hires feel less “special” and worsening the profession’s reputation relative to other fields with better pay.
• Retention is deteriorating even faster, turning the once‑stable talent pyramid into a “sick Christmas tree” as departures accelerate at all levels.

• Monthly ownership costs hit ~$3,200, up 46% since 2019 in real terms, now higher than in 1990 despite far lower mortgage rates.
• Home prices surged 54% since 2020, with 73 of the top 100 metros up more than 50%; taxes (+31%) and insurance (+72%) piled on additional cost pressure.
• Starter homes now reach $1M in a growing number of cities, per Zillow.
• Homeownership rate fell again in 2025, with the steepest drop among under‑35s; household formation is weakening as young adults stay with family or double up.
• Drivers of weak demand:
  • soft job market
  • heavier student debt
  • rising pessimism
  • AI‑related economic anxiety
• Congress is close to passing the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, a bipartisan package of ~50 measures, including a cap on institutional ownership of single‑family homes.

• One-third of adults aged 18–34 (25.2 million people) still live with their parents, a figure that has remained nearly unchanged since the pandemic peak.
• Housing costs are the primary driver: since 2019, median home prices are up 34% to $430,000, and median rent is up 18% to $1,673.
• Most young adults living at home are employed, and many have college degrees, contradicting stereotypes about idleness.
• Co‑living has risen across older age brackets: 4.5M adults aged 25–29 and 3M aged 30–34 still live with parents.

• The U.S. is short 1–5 million homes, and the shortage is now so severe that a broad consensus has formed around the need to build more.
• Every major solution creates winners and losers: cheaper housing helps renters and new buyers, but can reduce returns for investors and existing homeowners.
• Five major solution paths are emerging:
  1. Zoning reform + red‑tape reduction
  2. Cheaper construction financing
  3. Modular / prefab construction
  4. Starter‑home–focused land‑use reform
  5. Social housing expansion

>but can reduce returns for investors and existing homeowners.

And there's the problem. Homes should never have been an investment at all.

Boomers, whose retirement nest egg is locked away in their home, thought they could just ride off into the sunset by offloading their:

• overpriced
• deferred-maintenance
• rising carrying costs

shitshack onto a sucker, never anticipated that the buyers could just wait them out until home prices go down substantially.

It's not like boomers are getting any younger.

Idk how anyone is surviving this condo market right now. Ive been casually looking to finally buy since my rent in edgewater just went up again, but every single older building I look at is getting hit with massive six-figure special assessments because of the new 2026 structural laws

like obviously buildings need to be safe, but who actually has 80k just laying around to hand over to their HOA?? it’s completely pushing normal working people out. I was reading some market analysis from Larry mastropieri last night just trying to figure out if there are literally any buildings left that actually fully funded their reserves over the last decade, but it honestly feels like a ticking time bomb everywhere you look

insurance has doubled, and regular HOAs are routinely $1200+ now for a basic 1-bedroom. it just feels incredibly bleak for anyone trying to actually build a life in this city. just feeling entirely exhausted by the housing situation tbh

• Home sales remain stuck near 40‑year lows, with 2025 existing‑home sales (as a share of households) the weakest since 1982.
• Agents are quitting in large numbers as transactions dry up. Many take second jobs or leave the industry entirely.
• Newer agents are hit hardest, averaging only three transactions in 2024 and earning about $8,100 in gross income.
• Mortgage‑industry employment has collapsed by ~40% from its 2021 peak, showing the downturn is hitting the entire housing ecosystem.
• Commission‑rule changes and AI tools are reducing reliance on buyer agents, accelerating consolidation toward large brokerages.
• NAR membership is shrinking, but many “members” aren’t actually doing deals. Only 71% say real estate is their primary profession, the lowest on record.

Aww, what's the matter? Are they saying that:

• obtaining a license over the weekend
• charging a ~6% commission to take a bunch of smartphone photos
• unlocking a door

doesn't lead to a sustainable, lucrative 'career'? 🤡

The buyer boycott is working! Keep it up and keep the bagholders right where they are, drowning in rising carrying costs! 🖕

• PwC is expanding its strategic alliance with Anthropic, rolling out Claude Code and Claude Cowork across U.S. teams first, then globally.
• 30,000 PwC professionals will be trained and certified on Claude through a new joint Center of Excellence.
• The partnership focuses on three enterprise transformation pillars:
  • agentic technology build
  • AI‑native deal‑making
  • reinvention of core functions
• PwC is launching a new Office of the CFO business group built entirely on Claude for finance transformation in regulated industries.
• PwC and Anthropic are deploying agentic operating models across healthcare, life sciences, financial services, private equity, and consumer/industrial sectors.
• PwC will scale Claude to hundreds of thousands of employees, supported by leadership training and integration into ChatPwC, with active AI incubation pods in finance, supply chain, and deal‑making.

• KPMG is rolling out Claude to all 276,000+ employees across 138 countries, making it one of the largest enterprise AI deployments to date.
• Claude is being embedded directly into KPMG’s Digital Gateway, the firm’s core tax, legal, and advisory platform, enabling AI‑powered workflows inside the tools employees already use.
• Client work in tax, legal, private equity, and cybersecurity will now leverage Claude Cowork and Managed Agents to accelerate analysis, compliance, and system modernization.
• Tasks that once took weeks now take minutes, such as building AI agents for regulatory updates, thanks to Claude’s integration into Digital Gateway.
• KPMG becomes a preferred partner for private equity, helping portfolio companies deploy Claude to modernize IT systems and build AI‑enabled products (including via the new KPMG Blaze offering).
• Cybersecurity is a major focus, with Claude helping identify and remediate vulnerabilities under KPMG’s Trusted AI governance framework.
• Joint research with UT Austin emphasizes “human in the loop”, showing that AI value depends on employee judgment, workflow design, and evaluation, not just the model itself.

• Deloitte conducted layoffs in its audit practice this week, with multiple Reddit posts confirming cuts across teams.
• Senior managers were among those laid off, including one who described a scripted, impersonal termination meeting and a severance package of 9 weeks.
• Employees suspect cost‑cutting and offshoring, noting that higher‑paid U.S. staff are increasingly replaced by cheaper offshore labor.
• The job market for $100K+ roles has tightened, and Big 4 firms rely on turnover. When turnover slows, they cut headcount to rebalance staffing levels.