A new survey found a surprising trend: The nuclear family is losing ground to multigenerational living. More people are choosing to move themselves – and their children – in with Mom and Dad, often to cut costs.
Today, 6.2 million or 5.3% of all U.S. households are multigenerational – that’s up 120% in nine years.
These households are fundamentally different than those of the care-giving Oreo Generation. In 62% of these multigenerational cases it’s the adult children who are moving back with their parents, who are the grandparents. Three-fifths of these grandparents are providing some sort of financial assistance to their fully-grown children.
Three larger trends are making this an increasingly popular choice:
- Grandparents are doing better than most financially. That’s because 55% of grandparents do not carry a mortgage, and grandparents control more than half of the country’s wealth. So while grandparents have certainly taken a hit in this economy along with everyone else, they are, in many cases, more solvent than their young married children with young children.
- Grandparents are investing in their grandchildren. According to our recent national study, The Grandparent Economy, grandparents are spending about $32 billion on their grandchildren’s education, $11 billion on clothes for the kids, $6 billion on toys, and nearly $700 million on diapers.
- Decision-making is increasingly multi-generational. Whether it’s what first car to buy, where to go to college, or who to choose for insurance, grandparent’s are increasingly part of the decision making, both with their children and their grandchildren.
I think the new generation of grandparents is changing habits dramatically.
For instance this blog - Baby Boomer Grandparents: Good Bye Nana & Papa, Hello Avatars « http://bit.ly/brPufH - really points out the new face of grandparents.
They do use social media and they are hearing the message, so their buying habits are being directly influenced by the internet.
Posted by: glamamom | February 24, 2010 at 04:29 PM
Could this also shape how purchasing decisions are made, in terms of consumer behavior and media usage? Grandparents aren't likely to turn to social media or even the Internet. In fact, research suggests that this generation refers mostly to print ads like Yellow Pages.
Posted by: Cory Grassell | January 06, 2010 at 09:46 AM