what do these young men have to look forward to in life? home ownership and having a family probably seem so financially out of reach that kids are not even trying.
Millennials (at least those who graduated before the 2008 financial crisis) had legitimate aspirations of home ownership, starting a family, and achieving the typical American Dream milestones. Many of them have not given up those dreams, despite numerous setbacks. On the other hand, Generation Z never had those aspirations in the first place. They don't expect to ever own a home. They understand the nuclear family is financially unreachable. Life milestones after university graduation by and large do not exist for Gen Z kids.
The nuclear family was a stupid idea anyway, putting the necessity of income over the necessity of an (extended) family. Children are not supposed to be raised by a single pair of mother and father, that's not how humans have evolved to grow up. Humans have always been raised by the extended family and only in the last two-hundred years we've invented this crazy concept of a 'nuclear family'.