Notes and stats about generational housing

America at Home: Grandparents in the Attic, Children in the Basement. [Print headline: "When the Parents Are Back, This Time for Good". (The New York Times, 2/18/2018)

Percentage of older widows living with adult children

• 1940 -- 60%
• 1990 -- 20%

Why the drop?  Social Security.  Older adults were no longer dependent upon their children for financial security.

Persons 85 and older living in multigenerational households:

• 2006 -- 20%
• 2014 -- 24%

From the Times article:

What’s creating this reversal of a decades-long trend? 

One could point to several factors, including rising housing prices, inadequate retirement savings and the costs of long-term care. But the primary reason, Pew researchers contend, is that “the country’s changing demographics encourage shared living,” Dr. Fry said. “It’s much more prevalent among nonwhite adults, and they’re a growing share of the adult population.”