EDGEWATER -- The bed is on an elevated bunk. Below the bed is a desk, dressed with items from college: clothes, books and accessories. The floor is barely visible beneath a slew of still-stuffed bags of clothes.
In 2016, Dina Bardakh, 23, uprooted her life from Hunter College, along with the degree in political science she received, and plopped down inside the 273-square-foot room of her mother's two-bedroom modest apartment alongside the Hudson River.
A year later Bardakh is still there, in the room she shares with her two teenage sisters.
"I never unpacked," Bardakh explains. "I never imagined myself back here for as long as I have been. So, what do you do then?"
Bardakh is not the only one asking that question. As another college graduation season comes to an end, and a whole new set of millennials enter the job market, the prospect of recent graduates simply moving out of their parents' homes is dimmer than ever. According to Census data, 47 percent of 18-to-34-year-olds in New Jersey were still living with their parents in 2015, the highest rate in the country.
The situation shows little sign of improving, either: Data released earlier this month by the National Low Income Housing Coalition says tenants need to make $27.31 an hour, the seventh highest in the country, to afford the average two-bedroom apartment in New Jersey. That makes it virtually impossible for someone making an entry-level salary to afford his or her own place, at least not without teaming up with multiple roommates and/or forgoing other necessities.
Meanwhile, higher education funding has dropped nationwide, including 23 percent in New Jersey from 2008 to 2015. The resulting increased student debt is also keeping many recent grads stuck in their parents' places.
"It is sort of unprecedented, we would have to go back generations, to come to this situation where grown children live at home to the extent that they are today," said Dr. James Hughes, dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.
In recent years, many frustrated college graduates are giving up the promise of adult life in the New York-New Jersey area altogether. According to the 2007-2014 American Community Survey, 111,674 people age 18-34 moved out of New Jersey, the highest number for an age group in the state.
"I was really hopeful when I started going to college," Bardakh said. "It was New York City, the capital of the world. I thought there was going to be so many opportunities."
Bardakh's story is a familiar one for many recent graduates. She started college at LIU-Brooklyn, before transferring to Hunter. Throughout her college years, she worked part-time, whether it was in retail or as a resident assistant to receive free housing.
She did not, however, secure any internships -- the cost of college made it impossible to accept wage-free positions during her summers. That, she said, set her back when it came time to compete for entry-level positions.
After graduation last year, she linked up with multiple temporary work agencies and had her resume sent to hundreds of employers. She eventually landed a position at New York Medicaid Choice (MAXIMUS), where she is an enrollment broker for Medicaid and earns $16 an hour, or about $467 a week after taxes.
To get to work, she relies on the (increasingly unreliable) New Jersey Transit system and pays $300 a month. With $25,000 in student loans, her hopes of a settling down in a place of her own in New Jersey with her longtime boyfriend quickly evaporated. (Her student loan payments are currently deferred because of her low salary.)
Dina Bardakh, 23, hangs out in her room that shares with her two teenage sisters. She is moving out from her family's residence in Edgewater and heading to Colorado due to high living costs in New Jersey. (Ashlee Espinal | For NJ Advance Media)
"It's not just about taxes. It is about quality of life," Brandon McKoy, a policy analyst for New Jersey Policy Perspective, a Trenton think tank. "If the state is not going to do its part to invest in things that people care about when it comes to their quality of life, having affordable living, reliable transportation, well paying jobs, good schools, then it is foolish to expect people to stay here, especially young people."
Solving this problem, however, may be much easier said then done.
According to Hughes, the downward trajectory began with the financial crisis of 2008, the repercussions of which are still being felt by young people.
"That set back many millennials in their economic progression or career trajectory," he said. "They may have been unemployed for awhile, under employed or coming out of college. They lost several years of earning growth power during that time period."
This also means young people just getting out of college find themselves this spring now competing for entry-level jobs with people who graduated years earlier.
McKoy said the Garden State is facing an even harsher burden than most states.
"This is definitely a nationwide issue, but New Jersey is a little bit more drastic because it is a very, very expensive place to live, and this is happening at a time where wages are pretty much stagnant and most people in that age range, especially on the lower half, would be working around minimum wage jobs," he said.
And, says Hughes, "when you have such a powerful trend such as this, there are no silver bullets to change it. At best, some policies could deflect it slightly."
McKoy and New Jersey Policy Perspective have eyed a minimum wage raise as a potential policy that could help reverse the trend. (The current minimum wage in the state is $8.44, less than a third of what it would take to afford the average two-bedroom apartment.)
Hughes and McKoy also both say making college more affordable, hence lowering student debt upon graduation, is essential. According to a survey from American Student Assistance of nearly 2,000 people with student loans, 43 percent said their student debt was a factor in their decision to delay moving out of their parent's home.
For those with supportive parents, like Bardakh, staying at home is a fiscally responsible and convenient option, but experts worry about that option.
"If you are living at home, living paycheck-to-paycheck, just to live at home, how are you able to do anything that is required to start your adult life?" McKoy asked.
Dina Bardakh, 23, sits under her bed among her stuff from college she never unpacked after because she didn't expect to live at home after receiving her degree. Bardakh is moving out from her family's residence in Edgewater due to the high cost of living in New Jersey. (Ashlee Espinal | For NJ Advance Media)
Others consider leaving altogether, either across the border into parts of Pennsylvania that make a commute into New Jersey still plausible, or to a new state entirely.
The Garden State currently ranks last in the country in terms of net migration of millennials, losing 22,000 in 2015, according to the New Jersey Business and Industry Association. By comparison, Pennsylvania gained 19,000 millennials that same year.
But in addition to often disrupting families, mass migration can create what amounts to a kind of cultural and social stagnation that does not auger well for any region.
"To have a whole generation that is unable to engage in risky behavior and unable to engage in innovative behavior is a problem for the future," says McKoy.
Indeed, Bardakh will be the next to slip across state lines. Her and her boyfriend are moving to Colorado Sept. 1 -- a move she said felt right the first step out of the airport.
"As soon as I walked out of the airport, I was like 'Yes,'" she said. "I made my decision right then and there. I saw the mountains. I breathed the dry air. People consider the skyscrapers (in New York) like landscape and a view. But I am tired. I am there all the time. To me, it represents stress and anxiety. So much stress."
Joe Atmonavage may be reached at jatmonavage@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @jatmonavageNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook