Americans Moving In With Parents, Siblings To Afford A Home

Would-be homebuyers are reassessing the importance of family in the homebuying process, both financially and emotionally.

A new survey from Realtor.com found that half of respondents planning to buy a home in the next twelve months are thinking of asking their parents to help them.

Almost one-third have already moved in with their parents to help save money ahead of homeownership, while 22% say they’d consider doing so.

One-third are already living with family members other than their parents to save money, including siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

“The challenging market conditions this year are changing buyer behavior in significant ways, driving many more people to explore alternative living situations they may not have considered in the past,” said Danielle Hale, Realtor.com Chief Economist.

Childcare costs are also pushing families closer together.

The survey noted that return-to-office requirements are straining families that have adapted to taking care of their kids during the day, driving them to consider family proximity when home shopping.

Close to 30% of respondents are buying a new home in order to be closer to family, largely for financial reasons, and mainly in order to help care for other children in the family or needing affordable help caring for their own children.

Other top cited reasons for buying near family were because they liked the area, prices/cost of living have become too high where they currently live, or health issues.

“Faced with ongoing housing affordability issues and rising childcare costs, we’re seeing parents and children becoming roommates again in later years as the ‘kids’ save up to purchase their own place, siblings moving near each other to pool childcare resources, and some even buying homes with family to split the financial burden and make homeownership a reality,” Clare Trapasso, executive news editor at Realtor.com, noted.

People live close to family members, even if they aren’t living with them.

More than half of adults say they live within an hour’s drive of at least some of their extended family members, and many live near all or most of their extended family (28%) or near some extended family (27%), according to a 2022 study from Pew.

The challenges of Covid seem to have reignited that impulse for many Americans who live far away from their extended families, about 20%.

“COVID changed the calculus on how important it was to be near family,” Maddie Coombs, a 34-year-old general contractor and mother from Washington, Missouri, told Slate. “The boys go over and play with my dad once a week and my mom at least once a week, if not a couple times.”