Young Americans are reworking the old script for adulthood. With home prices, rents and borrowing costs still straining first-time buyers, some are choosing a different path: remote work paired with temporary living arrangements, long stays abroad or constant moves inside the U.S.
The change is showing up in housing and workforce data. Bankrate found that 74% of Americans said owning a home is part of the American Dream, but affordability remains a major barrier, while MBO Partners reported that 18.1 million U.S. workers identified as digital nomads in 2024, equal to 11% of the workforce.
Digital nomadism has moved into the mainstream
Digital nomadism is no longer a fringe lifestyle built around gap years and short-term travel. MBO Partners said its 2024 State of Independence research found 18.1 million American workers described themselves as digital nomads in 2024, up 4.7% from a year earlier and more than 147% higher than in 2019. The survey was fielded in June 2024 and included 6,575 U.S. adults, among them 1,178 current digital nomads.
That growth lines up with broader changes in how Americans work. Upwork said in its 2025 Future Workforce Index that 28% of U.S. skilled knowledge workers now freelance or work independently, generating a collective $1.5 trillion in earnings in 2024. In the same report, Upwork said 53% of Gen Z skilled workers work independently, a sign that younger workers are more open to careers untethered from a single office or city.
For many younger adults, that flexibility is not just about travel. It is also about cost. MBO Partners said digital nomads often cite flexibility and autonomy as key reasons for the lifestyle, and the firm described the movement as a mainstream work pattern rather than a niche trend.
The pressure point is housing. The National Association of Realtors said on November 4, 2024, that the share of first-time homebuyers fell to a historic low of 24%, down from 32% a year earlier. The median age of a first-time buyer rose to 38, up from 35, while the overall median age of buyers climbed to 56.
Bankrate’s home affordability findings point in the same direction. In its 2024 survey, 74% of Americans said homeownership is part of the American Dream, yet the company said affordability remains the biggest obstacle. Bankrate also found that 81% of Gen Zers and 76% of millennials said they would be willing to take action to find more affordable housing.
Some younger adults are also delaying or abandoning the traditional milestones that once came earlier. Pew Research Center reported in 2024 that today’s young adults are more likely to be living with their parents than young adults in the early 1990s were at the same age. Bankrate separately found that millennials were the generation most likely to say they had given up on buying a home in the previous five years because they could not find anything they liked or could afford.
For young workers shut out of ownership, digital nomad life can function as a workaround. It lowers the pressure to commit to one expensive housing market and lets workers chase cheaper rent, family support or stronger pay without making a permanent move. The data does not show that every young nomad is responding to housing costs, but it does show that affordability stress and remote-capable work are rising at the same time.
There are limits to the shift. Remote work is concentrated in knowledge jobs, and independent work can come with uneven income, benefits gaps and tax complications. MBO Partners has said the growth of nomadism has outpaced many employer policies and regulations, while Upwork’s research shows companies are still adjusting to a labor market that is less tied to traditional payroll structures.
What comes next is clearer than the long-term outcome. As long as younger Americans face steep entry costs in the housing market and still have access to remote or independent work, the digital nomad option is likely to remain part of the way they manage adulthood, work and housing all at once.