This summer, CBS News reported that 1 in 4 young adults live with their parents in the family home. Young adults includes people who are 25 years of age or younger. When you look at people between the ages of 26-34, the number rises to 1 in 3, in situations where the people in question have not yet gotten a college degree.
If this seems like a lot of older children living at home to you, it’s because these numbers are the highest they’ve been in 50 years. There’s a lot of conversation going on about why this is happening, along with discussion of what it means for the children of these adult children to grow up in multi-generational homes. Our particular wheelhouse is of course custom home designs and builds in the Newton area, so we’d like to talk about how changing families means changing house design.
Adult children are adults, and adults need a certain amount of space and privacy for their health and happiness. As much as possible, providing some degree of separation helps to keep families harmonious. This can mean things like having additional entrances to the home, creating a custom addition or in-law apartment, or enlarging the kitchen to accommodate multiple refrigerators.
One of the benefits of having adult children in the home is that adult parents have a tendency to get older and from time to time require help. Home renovations can include making changes to make the home more accessible and safer for older family members. As Newton building contractors, we’ve seen a number of first floor additions created specifically for grandparents to live in, or for aging parents to move into instead of an upstairs bedroom.
Flexibility is really the key to multi-generational living. Working with a contractor who can help create innovative solutions to problems like storage, accessibility, and the need for multiple kitchens in a custom design will make things much easier.