Group living decisions as youths transition to adulthood

This study follows teens through young adulthood as they transition to inde pendent living. We focus on a little studied issue: why some youths live in groups rather than alone or with parents. This choice is important because the size of the group has a substantial impact on the demand for dwelling units; the more youths per dwelling the lower is aggregate demand and the g reater is population density. Our study also adds to the knowledge of which factors influence youths' choice of destination as they leave the parental home. The empirical testing uses a discrete hazard model within a multinom ial logit framework to allow for more than one possible state transition. W e find that economic variables have little impact on the decision of whethe r to exit to a large versus a small group, while socio-demographic variable s matter. We also test a new push-pull hypothesis and find that the pull of economic variables on the probability of exiting the parental home increas es as youths reach their mid to late twenties.