Already worried about how much you’re going to miss your kids when they move out? Don’t worry, according to a new Coldwell Banker survey they might not move out at all. So called Multi-Gen housing is all the rage at the moment, in part due to cost cutting measures in a bad economy, but also at least partially due to a desire for families to be closer. (This is also, basically, the plot of the new NBC show “Parenthood.”)
“More than one third of our sales associates have seen clients express a new for a multi-gen home,” Diann Patton, Consumer Specialist at Parsippany, N.K.-based Coldwell Banker Real Estate says. In fact, about 37% of Coldwell agents have gotten this request. The top reasons being saving money on house (39%), saving money on health care costs (29%) and family bonding (6%). The AARP says that 25% of Baby Boomers expect that they’ll share homes with an aging parent at some point and AOL News reports that there were about 5.5 million multi-gen households listed in the 2009 census.
Home developers are catering to these families, who are not only inviting elderly parents into their homes, but planning for growing children to potentially need to return to the nest in order to start their lives in a world where college loans are ballooning, starting salaries are shrinking and cost of living expenses are only getting higher.
Multi-Gen families are in good company – the White House itself has become a multi-generational home. The Obama family has made their hectic life in the spotlight work by including the First Mother-in-Law in the mix.
