For Javon Simon, the costs of renting his first apartment kept coming.
The rent, home internet, food, utilities, furniture and other expenses continued to pile up for the 21-year-old. Simon works part-time for
Teen HYPE, the Detroit-based youth organization, as a social media manager, creates social media content and runs a photography business.
He now has a roommate, his cousin, to help with the bills. He’s received kitchen appliances, new silverware, a porch swing for his back patio and drapes from people looking to give them away. His mom has helped him figure out how to divide his utility bill payments, so that they would be more affordable. All the unexpected costs of living independently have come as a shock.
“At first I thought…you just paid the rent, and the rent covers everything, but then my mom, she was like, ‘Oh, you know you got the water [bill], the light [bill]?’ I'm like, ‘Whoa, whoa, what?’” Simon said.
Adjusting to all the hurdles of adulthood can be overwhelming. But like Simon, other Gen Zers in metro Detroit are entering adulthood in a challenging economy nationally, particularly in Detroit. Factors like rising housing costs, food costs, and other economic factors complicate life for Detroiters overall, but they pose high hurdles for young people looking to live on their own for the first time. Research reports from the University of Michigan and Harvard University offer some insight into Detroit’s economic future and factors that could drive economic mobility for future generations.
When Simon first moved into his rental three-bedroom, one-bathroom home earlier this year, the costs consumed his funds. These days, he’s doing better financially and can shop again, but the costs of basics like food, particularly dining out, add up, he said.
After he first moved in and paid his expenses, “I would have probably like $80 [or] $50 left out of the check,” Simon said. “I just [waited] for the next check. It was hard. It was real hard.”
Simon isn’t alone in his sticker shock. The rising housing costs and other expenses have squeezed the budgets of metro Detroit residents like Simon, the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data show.
Though the inflation rate has fallen nationally, prices for housing and other basic living expenses are rising at a faster pace. While the national inflation rate
cooled to 2.5% in August, the inflation rate for Detroit, Dearborn and Warren
was 3.5% that month, per the latest Consumer Price Index figures. The cost of renting and owning a home for Detroiters and their neighbors in Dearborn and Warren rose 5.9% and 7.1%, respectively.
Will the city’s economic climate change as Gen Z continues to enter adulthood? Researchers predict that decline to an average pace of about 2.5% percent per year between 2025 and 2029, according to
a University of Michigan report released in September. Factoring in that inflation, wage growth will grow about 1% annually between 2024 and 2029, researchers predict in the report. Of course, the uptick in prices will hit Gen Z Detroiters coming into adulthood alongside older generations, said Jacob Burton, research area specialist at the University of Michigan, told Model D.
“We are forecasting positive inflation-adjusted wages, but the reality of the fact is, I think inflation is going to stay outside of people’s comfort zones for quite some time,” Burton said
.
For Gen Z and Gen Alpha children in Detroit, the economic conditions have improved somewhat in recent years, but there’s still plenty of room for growth, the University of Michigan researchers found. Between 2018 and 2022, the share of Detroiters age 17 or younger living in low-income households declined, but four out of five children in the city were living in a lower-income household as of 2022, more than double the national proportion.
“The situation for children in Detroit did improve [and] had a better improvement than the nation as a whole during that time period…but it doesn't change the reality that it is very stark,” Burton said.
Though Detroit hasn’t been the top city for upward mobility, its trends are promising for Gen Z if current trends continue, said Ben Goldman,
Cornell University professor and
former PhD candidate at Harvard University. Black kids born in Wayne County to the lowest-income families in 1992 earned an average of over $18,000 by age 27, a 21% jump compared to the $3,200 Black kids born in 1978 made by the time they turned 27,
according to Harvard University’s Opportunity Atlas. During that same period, Wayne County children born in 1992 into the lowest-income households saw their average income rise 1.1% to $19,600, up $213.36 compared to the kids born in Wayne County in 1978.
Reflecting on the researchers’ recent findings about Detroit, Goldman said, “If that progress continues for the Gen Z kids… then suddenly, Detroit would be looking pretty good.”
Thinking back on his journey to finding a rental home, Simon said it would have been helpful to have a care package with food, a stimulus check or steady financial support and more affordable housing options.
“Because I didn't have that stuff, it kinda hindered a lot of things that I was trying to do, and I missed out on so much—not even just going out, but a lot of stuff that I wanted to buy for myself,” Simon said. “I will miss out on eating some nights, because I gave away all the money for rent… A care package would have helped so much.”
Initially, he couldn’t find a landlord to approve him for an apartment, an obstacle he thinks he faced because of his age and lack of credit. But thanks to his sister, he found a landlord who approved him to rent a home, he said.
Now that he has his own apartment, he now has the space to create content freely. Still, in conversations with his friends, Simon explains to friends how pricey it can be to live out on your own, he said.
Simon said, “If you can stay home as long as you can, do that and just stack up your money.”