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By Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy<\/div><\/div>\n

Children may move home, but many multi-gen homes are to help middle-aged adults take care of aging parents \u2013 and enjoy the benefits of trustworthy in-house babysitters.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

NEW YORK \u2013 When Alena Shifrin\u2019s parents in 2014 moved in with her family of four in Mount Kisco, New York, she knew she\u2019d have to expand her 1,200-square-foot home.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Soon the Cape Cod-style home about 37 miles northeast of Manhattan underwent a major renovation and grew to 2,300 square feet.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Having her parents living with her allowed her to keep a close eye on her mother, who had suffered a stroke a few years earlier. It also allowed Shifrin to take a job as a fitness instructor without worrying about watching her young children, then 9 and 5.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

She had been a full-time, stay-at-home mother to accommodate her husband\u2019s busy schedule as an orthopedist. Now, her father could drive her children to their activities.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But once the pandemic hit, the space started feeling cramped. And the family wasn\u2019t alone.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

While the number of Americans living in multi-generational family households has continued to rise in recent years, the pandemic seems to have further accelerated the trend.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Before March 2020 \u2013 when cases of COVID-19 began to surge and the economy sputtered \u2013 approximately 11% to 12% of primary residence buyers every year bought multi-generational homes. In the first three months of the pandemic, however, that number jumped to 15%, according to a National Association of Realtors analysis.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The association\u2019s survey, based on 8,000 people who bought a home between April to June, found the top reason for buying a multi-generational home was to take care of aging parents.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As for Shifrin, her children were now 16 and 12, and they were attending school remotely. Her husband needed a quiet place while he treated his patients from home via telemedicine. Her fitness classes also had moved online.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was the one being loud. I have a little music and I\u2019m singing and I\u2019m like \u2018let\u2019s do this,\u2019 and everyone\u2019s home and it\u2019s chaos and my parents are like, \u2018It\u2019s so loud. Why are you guys so loud?\u2019\u201d she said \u201cNot to mention, everyone was trying to find the best Wi-Fi spot in the house.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

By November, right after Thanksgiving, Shifrin says she realized the multi-generational family had outgrown the house. The pandemic made the need to find a bigger home more pressing.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was just so desperate. I was like, we\u2019ve got to get out. This is not healthy. Everybody\u2019s getting miserable. It\u2019s time to go,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Jessica Lautz, vice president of demographics research for the National Associations of Realtors\u00ae, said taking care of aging parents and spending more time with them and relatives was a \u201ctop priority\u201d for purchasing a multi-generational home.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Lautz added that other reasons included adult children moving back home and cost savings that result from multiple incomes purchasing a larger house together.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In 2016, 64 million people, or 20% of the U.S. population lived with multiple generations under one roof, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of census data. That number was the highest since 1950 when three or more generations living under one roof composed 21% of all households.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

John L. Graham, professor emeritus at the University of California, Irvine and co-author of \u201cAll in the Family: A Practical Guide to Successful Multigenerational Living,\u201d says the growth in multi-generational households is a cultural shift back to the way things once were and that the arrangement is mutually beneficial.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s only in the last 50 years in the United States and the Northern European countries that people have tried out the nuclear family living,\u201d he says. \u201cIt just doesn\u2019t work well. Grandparents and grandkids are supposed to be near each other.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Graham says families living together provide enormous psychological benefits, particularly for the elderly when they are around younger people.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially during the pandemic, with a shortage of health care workers, the family is going to be the saving grace of home health care,\u201d Graham said.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

When the pandemic hit, Shobha Bhatnagar and her husband, Gaurav, found their adult children back at home in Scarsdale, New York, about 20 miles south of Shifrin\u2019s family. Their daughter had returned from college to learn remotely, and their son, who was working in Brooklyn, moved back home with his partner. The couple\u2019s mothers, who live in India, also were slated to join them later in the year.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

While the family had planned to move to Connecticut to escape the high tax school district where they were living, they\u2019d never thought of buying anything much larger than their 2,400 square-foot-house.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The pandemic convinced them otherwise.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The couple knew they no longer could plan to alternate the mothers\u2019 visits and would need more space. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s when they found the house of their dreams. In June, they saw a 5,000 square-foot home in Stamford, Connecticut, with six bedrooms, a cottage and a pool for which they paid less than the smaller Scarsdale home. They said the best part about the house was that it had two bedrooms and two bathrooms on the lower floor so their mothers wouldn\u2019t have to use the stairs.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a place where each person could have their own space and be together to watch TV. The other thing was that they kept each other company and did not feel isolated,\u201d says Shobha Bhatnagar, who co-owns a management consulting firm with her husband. \u201cWe were working extra-long hours. They would spend the mornings cooking and feeding us and then watch TV afterwards.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The rise in multi-generational living can be attributed to racial and ethnic diversity in the U.S. population, according to Pew Research. Among Asians living in the U.S., 29% lived in multi-generational family households in 2016, according to census data. Among Hispanics and Blacks, the shares in 2016 were 27% and 26%, respectively. Among whites, 16% lived with multiple generations of family members.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For Shifrin, having her parents at home where she could watch them was a major source of comfort during the pandemic.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of seniors are suffering depression from isolation because they can\u2019t see their families,\u201d she says. \u201cI was able to make sure that my parents got their vaccinations, and I could drive them without worrying about getting them sick since we were all quarantining together.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\nAuthor: kerrys<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"