Re-Nesting

On my drive over to work this morning, I heard an interesting story (scroll about 1/3 down) on NPR. Apparently, it is becoming quite a trend for young college graduates to go back and live with their parents. I was no stranger myself to this phenomenon. One factoid I thought was interesting was that 63% of recent college graduates are moving back home! The story also talks about how the stigma surrounding moving back has dissapated, and that parents and children are both finding it to be a comfortable arrangement.

Combine this with the mini-trend I have spotted among some of my pals to buy homes near their parents, "Everybody Loves Raymond" style, and I start to wonder. Does this portend a return to multi-generational families living together again? If so, that would have interesting, hopefully positive social consequences. There could also be an effect on the amount and types of housing that may be desired in the future, which in return affects our patterns of settlement. This will be fun to monitor over the long term.

February 23, 2004 05:20 PM

Comments (3)

02/23: alan said:

I love my mom, but she lives on the east coast and I live on the west. It's really for the best.

02/27: John said:

Michelle and I have been thinking about this when dreaming about building a home. One thing we'd want is to be able to easily remodel the home so that we can have an appartment attached to the house when we're old - and have one of our kids live in the house.

Another family I met that lives in South Africa (met via the Tucks) has a large farm. All of their children have built their homes either on the family farm, or a short distance away.

03/01: shelby said:

Funny you should mention this! I, 2 years after graduating college, am moving back in with my parents for about 4 months while I transition between Seattle & living with Eric. We are all really excited about it, because my mom & I are best friends, but we're also super scared about certain issues of my teenage years reoccuring.
Also, my parents bought their most recent house *because* it has room to build a "Mother-in-law" cottage, for my grandma to live in eventually, or for Eric and I to live in temporarily (this one's not happening).
Anyway, I *hope* we go toward more extended-family-oriented living! It seems that anything that builds up family strength would be good right now.