The economy may have largely recovered from the depths of the downturn, but there’s an all-time volume of grown children living with their folks. Along with soaring housing prices, aging parents, and the changing ethnic makeup of the nation, the trend of multi-generational living looks like it’s just starting out.
Bye-Bye, Empty Nests: Multi-generational Living Is on the Rise
About 19% of all Americans, roughly 60.6 million people, lived in multi-generational homes in 2014, in households typically made up of parents, their adult children, and often their grand-kids, according to a recent Pew Research Center report that looked at U.S. Census data. That’s practically a throwback to the 1950s, when about 21% of American citizens shared a roof with their grown children or parents. Déjà vu, anyone?
As nuclear families became the norm, that percentage dropped to merely 12% in 1980. However the economy tanked in the mid-2000s. And as times became tough, the volume of adult children living with their parents started rising again-hitting 17% in 2009 and 18% in 2012, according to the report.
The report defined adult children as age 25 and up, so college students home on breaks aren’t counted, and investigated households with a minimum of two generations.
“We had a 50-year experiment with the nuclear family,” says John Graham, co-author of “Together Again: A Creative Guide to Successful Multi-generational Living.” Now “we’re getting back to the way human beings have always lived-in extended families.”
The uptick is partly due to the nation’s growing numbers of ethnic minorities, that happen to be more prone to live in multi-generational homes. About 28% of Asians and approximately 25% of both Hispanics and blacks shacked up with their extended families in 2014, according to the report. That’s in comparison with just 15% of whites.
Another interesting finding is that women, at 20%, are slightly more likely than men, at 18%, to live in these arrangements.
“As the face of America is changing, so are family structures,” says Donna Butts, executive director of Generations United, a Washington, DC-based advocacy group for inter-generational programs and housing. “It shouldn’t be a taboo or looked down upon if grown children are living with their families or older adults are living with their grown children.
“The majority of families say there can be some difficulties, but overall it helps them economically, it helps them with care giving, and it helps them develop stronger ties between family members,” she adds.
Many of real estate agent Karen K.H. Park‘s predominantly Asian clients look for multi-generational homes in the Fort Lee, NJ, area where she works. Most are grown children with their own kids, who are seeking separate spaces in their new homes for their parents-whether anticipating long-term visits or permanent stays.
“The husband and wife need someone to help raise their children,” particularly if they’re both working, Park says. “They help each other.”
The shift can also be attributed to basic economics, says Carmen Multhauf, co-author of the book “Generational Housing: Myth or Mastery for Real Estate.” Rents and home prices have been skyrocketing in recent years, hitting new heights in some cities.
“The younger generations have not been able to save,” she says of the younger generation often struggling to get good-paying jobs. “Having student debt is keeping them from having enough money to fund a down payment.”
Builders are taking note.
About 25% to 30% of Partners in Building’s business is now multi-generational houses, says CEO Jim Lemming. Ten years ago, he estimates it made up just 15% of the Houston, TX-based custom builder’s clientele.
More and more of the company’s buyers are hailing from areas of the world where multi-generational homes are definitely the norm-and they carry that expectation to the U.S., Lemming says.
Most of the housing his company builds for these particular clients is a suite on the first floor, sometimes with a separate entrance along with a kitchenette. Clients frequently request a more detached suite with a separate walkway connecting it to the main house.
And while the bulk of his clients are requesting this housing because of their aging parents, he’s seeing increasingly more adult children come back to the nest.
“That certainly is a developing trend that needs to be watched,” Lemming says.