By Geoff Williams, FrontDoor.com | Published: 5/20/2009
Or you could focus on the fact that there's something kind of comforting about the 21st century looking more and more like the 19th. That was a time, after all, when multiple generations living under one roof was nothing surprising, and there were benefits of having children growing up under the wing of parents, grandparents and even a rogue uncle or aunt.
Fortunately, as times change, and the new looks like the days of old, houses appear set to evolve right along with them. If you're wondering if that add-on bedroom will really someday help sell your home any faster, and if you're questioning if there really is a house that you can buy with enough space to accommodate your spouse's parents, the answer is increasingly -- yes.
Get used to it
In 1895, The Philadelphia Record ran a story about multigeneration homes. It wasn't a story that different generations were living together in their city, but five generations warranted a brief item. But even that, while rare, wasn't all that shocking. Numerous cities back then were running stories about five generations living in one household, generally with the patriarch or matriarch having reached their centennial birthday.
That's the direction we're heading in again, although we were headed there before the Great Recession roared to life. A recent AARP Bulletin study shows that the number of multigenerational households climbed from 5 million in 2000 to 6.2 million in 2008, and with unemployment going up, it's believed that that number is significantly higher today. And while this is stretching the point a bit, even President Barack Obama's mother-in-law lives with the family.
Jeff Otteau's insight echoes the scant statistical information out there. His East Brunswick, New Jersey-based consultation firm, the Otteau Valuation Group, services residential and commercial developers, among other groups, with their company motto being "bringing clarity to real estate."
Otteau says that in the coming years first-time homeowners will be older as a group, since the tightening of credit will force people to save up more and longer for their house, which aren't likely to resemble the often-criticized McMansions, the nickname that cropped up in the 1990s to describe the oversized, opulent homes that have dotted the suburban landscape throughout the last couple decades.
That means houses are going to get smaller even as they get more crowded.
But on the cheerier side, that's better for the environment, and living spaces will be more functional with less wasted space. "People are going to be buying houses that they can afford," says Otteau.
Buying houses we can afford: an interesting concept and Misty Weaver is a part of that. Weaver is a partner at 5 Elements Design, which is based in San Diego and specializes in designing small (500 to 1,500 square feet) residential custom homes, and she also has noticed that multigenerational houses are staging a comeback.
Weaver says that they used to get requests for multigenerational home blueprints every couple of months, but now she and her partner, Sarah Ascolese, are fielding these calls every couple weeks.
"The majority have definitely been grandparents-parents-kids," says Weaver, "but occasionally we'll get a sister or brother in the mix, or it's unclear what the relationship is." She says that what they've been asked to do run the gamut from basement makeovers for relatives to sleep in to adding little cottages alongside the house.
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