TEXT OF STORY

Steve Chiotakis: Here’s something realtors are seeing more of:
multi-generational families looking to live with one-another. Marketplace’s Mitchell Hartman explains.

Mitchell Hartman: Let’s call it the rise of the “latchkey family.” At Coldwell Banker, nearly half of realtors nationwide are seeing more customers in the market for homes for the newly extended family.

Diann Patton: So either Mom and Dad coming to live in the house or maybe the teenagers coming back to live.

Researcher Diann Patton says this could help the “move-up” market. People looking to accommodate an aging relative with special health needs or an unemployed 20-something with special musical needs.

Patton: We have seen attic accommodations, we’ve seen the daylight basement, purchasing property where other family members can build on the same lot.

Susan Newman: Many people can’t afford to have a separate apartment.

Susan Newman is a social psychologist who’s just written a book on multi-generational living.

Newman: If you’re adding on an addition for your parents, you might want to let them contribute, if they can, so that they feel they own it.

Newman says that cost-sharing can lead to smoother family relations under one roof.

I’m Mitchell Hartman for Marketplace.