One In Five Boomers Have Children Living At Home, Higher In Toronto and Vancouver, but there is a spike in the opposite trend

One of the most interesting things about North America’s societal evolution is the change in family dynamics. For many years, people would have children, and these kids would stay in the family home until they finished school. At that point, most children would move out, establish new careers, and then start families of their own. In recent years, however, some children have opted to stay home or even move back because of their employment and/or economic situation.

We also see the opposite, as more and more elderly parents are moving in with their adult children. This upward trend is almost certain to continue now that seniors outnumber children in Canada.

At the national level, 12% of Boomers identified having adult children 25 years or older at home. Similar rates were found in BC (12%), and it was a little higher in Ontario (13%). More affordable Quebec (11%) came in lower, but not by much.

“Shared living” — when adults live under the same roof but are not romantically involved — is on the upswing. A major factor in the trend is parents living with their adult children, a twist on the “boomerang” phenomenon of young adults moving in with their parents.

In the United States, nearly 79 million adults, or 31.9 % of the adult population, live in a “shared household,” meaning one in which two or more adults not intimately attached live in the same home.  

That’s a slight uptick from the 27.4 percent recorded in 2004, when homeownership reached its peak and before the foreclosure crisis.

More adults are living with their parents, and it may be due to high home prices. The Royal LePage 2021 Boomer Survey (it’s a thing) found one in five Boomers have kids at home currently. Breaking that number down, over half of those are adults 25 and older. A significant number of these Boomers said they don’t expect these kids to ever leave home.

But while young adults moving in with their parents continue to account for the bulk of such households, there’s another reason at play for the increase: Parents taking up residence in their children’s homes.

Older parents moving in with their adult children make up a much larger component of “shared living” than they did a generation ago.

“Adults who live in someone else’s household typically live with a relative,” Pew stated in its report on its findings. “Today, 14 percent of adults living in someone else’s household are a parent of the household head, up from 7 percent in 1995.” By contrast, “some 47 percent of [such] adults are adult children living in their mom and/or dad’s home, down from 52 percent in 1995.”

These trends are leading to new ways of thinking about housing construction and design that will satisfy the multi-generational family living situation.

It’s more clear now than ever that our traditional ideas of housing are being greatly challenged by the current conditions of the world. With that in mind, many people are turning to housing alternatives that offer different lifestyles. One growing trend in Canada’s major cities and beyond is multi-generational housing.

The rise of multi-generational housing is changing the face of Canadian housing and will influence buying trends in real estate in the near future.

Have questions about buying, selling, or renovating to accommodate an older adult moving in?

Contact me today!