{"id":96803,"date":"2026-10-28T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T06:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opinionpublica.tv\/portada\/?p=96803"},"modified":"2026-10-27T18:20:53","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T00:20:53","slug":"cant-afford-a-home-cant-afford-a-baby-cant-afford-life-this-is-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opinionpublica.tv\/portada\/cant-afford-a-home-cant-afford-a-baby-cant-afford-life-this-is-30\/","title":{"rendered":"Can’t afford a home. Can’t afford a baby. Can’t afford life. This is 30"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Can\u2019t<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A young woman in Queens celebrated her 30th birthday with cake, champagne \u2014 and an existential crisis over still living paycheck to paycheck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 30-year-old in Manhattan felt ready to consider marriage, but knew he couldn\u2019t afford a wedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And in Brooklyn, a couple, at 32, confronted a generational conundrum: stay in their hometown as their parents age? Or move away to start a family?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forget the kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 30-somethings are not all right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEveryone I know around my age is feeling the weight of the burdens of this economy and what it takes to live a nice, comfortable middle-class life,\u201d said Dan Iammatteo, 31, a marketing director in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And their angst is intensifying. People in their early 30s constitute the largest age cohort in the United States, and their frustrations have emerged as a potent force reshaping cities and their politics and demographics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In New York, this age group turbocharged the ascent of the Democratic Socialists of America, propelling to office Zohran Mamdani, who turned 35 this month, and a slate of progressive allies to congressional primary wins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the midterm elections little more than a week away, these voters across the nation \u2014 their rage fueled by rent and gas prices that are devouring their paychecks \u2014 could prove pivotal in some major contests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a very real feeling across the U.S.,\u201d said Jason Dorsey, a generational researcher who lives in Austin, Texas. \u201cThirty-somethings really feel like they have missed out and have been left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly two dozen people in their early 30s said in interviews that the image of adult life that they had been promised turned out to be a sham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many work full time and earn enough to cover the cost of basic groceries (even if it means trips to three stores). But their salaries are losing ground to inflation, and their health care costs are skyrocketing. They\u2019re cutting back on salon visits, social activities and fresh fruit runs \u2014 and they feel priced out of adulthood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Thursday, the long-running Harvard Youth Poll found for the first time in its history that more young Americans expect to fall behind, rather than surpass, their parents economically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Can\u2019t<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Adam Crittenden, 30, who lives in Chelsea and does data work, thought about a future wedding (elopement sounds cheap!), children (costlier for an L.G.B.T.Q. couple) or a two-bedroom apartment (median asking rent in Manhattan is $6,000).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the past, the idea was that you would check all these boxes by 30, give or take,\u201d Mr. Crittenden said. \u201cBut the more I think about it, so much of that is incredibly out of reach.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018A Lot of Hurt\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a time when the early 30s were described as a turning point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNever trust anybody over 30\u201d was a rallying cry of the \u201960s; the lead character of \u201c13 Going on 30\u201d awoke to a thriving career and posh apartment; a pop star even used \u201c30\u201d as a meditation on marriage and motherhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But so much about the lives of Americans has changed during the last three decades. In 1990, a wedding at 26, a baby shower (or two) by 28 or a first home around 30 was ordinary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so crazy,\u201d said Cat Van Holt, 31, a housing attorney in Manhattan who earns about $84,000 a year and lives in a rent-stabilized studio apartment. Many of her clients face eviction; she knows she isn\u2019t poor. But compared with those mythical adults three decades ago, \u201cour two realities are just leagues apart.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most Americans across all age groups agree: Financial milestones are harder to meet for today\u2019s young adults than they were for their parents\u2019 generation, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center this summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The share of Americans who say raising children is unaffordable jumped 20 percentage points during the last decade. And while people in their 30s today are more highly educated than earlier generations, they are more than twice as likely to remain saddled with steep student loan payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In interviews, two people in their early 30s separately described feeling \u201clike a teenager\u201d compared with their parents at this stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One woman in Manhattan struggled to fathom how her mother was married with two children by 35 and owned the New England home where she still lives. At the same age, she is single, and the rent on her 275-square-foot studio apartment doubled during the last decade while her take-home pay barely budged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou work hard and then you do better than your parents. And then your kids do better than you. And on and on,\u201d said Maria Doulis, a New York State deputy comptroller who has researched this age group. At least, that\u2019s how the story went.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt almost feels like the slipping away of the American dream,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many young professionals in their 30s have reached a breaking point in recent years and moved away in droves to raise families \u2014 contributing to an enrollment crisis in New York City\u2019s school system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fiona Kearns, 31, who was born and raised in Queens, and her husband are public schoolteachers who consider themselves well paid. She is among the fortunate with no student debt. \u201cEven with all that luck and privilege, I can\u2019t get a two-bedroom apartment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The couple planned to upgrade for more space last winter and try for a baby in the summer. But the search for an affordable place proved hopeless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel a lot of hurt about it as I feel myself aging \u2014 and a lot of resentment over being so careful to make responsible choices,\u201d she said. \u201cAm I entitled to have what my parents had? I\u2019m not sure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She paused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s hard to know that I can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Promises Dashed<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ali Sousa sometimes feels a gnawing guilt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Sousa, 31, who lives in Central Brooklyn, needed to lean on her family to cover the $4,800 out-of-pocket cost of a recent chronic back pain treatment. She barely has savings and sometimes eats French fries for dinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt can really feel like a personal failing,\u201d said Ms. Sousa, who earns about $52,000 a year working in theater administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She regularly opens Instagram to a sea of stories from friends, desperate for any extra work to make their monthly bills. \u201cI don\u2019t know how we even begin to fix this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In interviews, many people in their 30s felt that they were promised that graduating college, climbing the career ladder and forgoing DoorDash or Uber would put them on the path to whatever a \u201ccomfortable life\u201d means these days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Manhattan, a 33-year-old nonprofit lawyer was somewhat embarrassed to admit that his parents are purchasing him a home. But it\u2019s the only way that anyone he knows has managed to buy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A college-educated couple, both 32, in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid reprisal from their employers, were among the many who acknowledged that these pressures have made them reconsider becoming parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The husband recently learned that, adjusted for inflation, he earns only about $5,000 more than he made in 2020. The wife\u2019s monthly student loan payment jumped $600 overnight after Congress rewrote the rules for certain loans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She pointed out that she was born to Soviet refugees who arrived in 1989 and had to learn English. But her parents planted roots in New York with government assistance, bought an apartment and built a fulfilling life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She worries that starting a family now in Bay Ridge would push them into poverty \u2014 and refuses to bring a child into such a world. The two summed up their sense of dismay: We did all the things you\u2019re supposed to do. And it\u2019s not getting us nearly as far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, some researchers saw reasons to feel bullish \u2014 or, at least, something other than abject despair over this extended timeline of adulthood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe sometimes forget the benefits,\u201d said Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, a senior research scholar at Clark University who has written about emerging adulthood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kandice Hill, a 33-year-old working in sales operations, moved in March from North Carolina to a South Brooklyn house. She has 10 roommates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To her family, it\u2019s a curious arrangement. To her, it\u2019s a relief. Back in Charlotte, she felt the pressure of societal expectations as a single woman; parishioners in her Bible study meetings sometimes prayed that they would find a partner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In New York, her lifestyle comes with much less shame. At her employer\u2019s Bring Your Child to Work Day, she noticed many parents of young children were in their 40s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo one\u2019s like, \u2018That\u2019s nuts,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cThey don\u2019t even bat an eye.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n