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Julia Gutowski, a 25-year-old freelance TV writer and producer, moved out of her family home last year where she had been living with her parents and older sister. Ms. Gutowski lived at home to save money. Even so, she was a bit embarrassed to live at home. “Being single you can’t bring someone home to your parent’s house — or I wouldn’t do that,” she says.

Her parents downsized their house when she was 23, leaving her childhood home in York Mills and moving to Yonge Street and Finch Avenue. “I kind of downsized with them. It should have been my signal to leave, but at that time I didn’t,” she says.

David Roberts, a lecturer of Urban Studies at the University of Toronto, says economics are behind what he calls the return to home.

“Students are getting degrees and coming out with more significant debt than they would have had a generation before, and having a really hard time finding work that will pay enough for them to live on their own,” Mr. Robers said.

Statistics Canada reports that 45% of people in Toronto in their 20’s live in their parental home, compared with 34% in Montreal and 31% in Halifax.

Mr. Roberts says that one reason for this trend might be cultural influences. “The diversity of Toronto means there is a diversity of expectations as to what people do at age twenty that might be different than other cities that are less diverse. ”

Mr. Danto-Clancy lacks the money to afford Toronto rent — or the time to look for a place. “Living in Toronto is prohibitively expensive and even now looking for apartments, with a full-time relatively well-paid job my choices are really restricted. Second is time, looking for places here takes for ever, you need to treat it like a full-time job.”