I think it’s a relatively recent thing in Barbados for grown children to leave home and live on their own in a rented apartment/house. The expectation used to be that children would stay at home, living rent-free, until they got married and/or saved up enough money to build their own homes.
This expectation no longer holds as strong as it once did, but I’ve still heard some people say, “Why would you go out and throw away your money renting a place, when you could stay at home and save for an asset that will be really yours?”
Well, the truest answer to that would be that if I stayed at home, my family would completely drive me up the wall (and probably vice versa), but I’ve found a more objective rebuttal in this article that busts the myths about renting vs. buying. Some of the details are specific to the US, but the general principles apply even here in the Caribbean, I think.
Of course my desire to justify my decision to rent may just be a case of sour grapes stemming from the reality that in this day and age in Barbados, for young middle class people like me, owning real estate of any kind is becoming more and more of a pipe-dream by the minute.
I was amazed to learn that the average age for children leaving home in Australia is 27 – which means 50% are older than that! Amongst some groups – Greeks and Italians, for instance – it must be even higher than that. My old housemate left home for the first time when she moved in with us at 33, and when her mother visited she was all like “It’s such a waste of money to pay rent, you should come home”, etc. (And my friend did go back to live at home in the end).
I agree with you, though; living at home would drive me insane (in fact it’s a little worrying how much better I get on with my family when I’m on the other side of the world ;). Are you renting on your own or sharing? I’ve only ever shared, but my friends who rent on their own say they’d never go back…
Kate · April 15, 2008