Hello and welcome to the Spotlight Vancouver
podcast. I am your host, Doug Varinas, licensed
real estate agent in Washington and Oregon. And
today we're going to talk about multi -generational
living, who is buying multi -generational homes,
why they're buying them, and what to look for
in a multi -generational home. Let's get to it.
First of all, multi -generational homes are hot
right now. And I see this trend continuing into
the future. It's something I've spoken about
multiple times, especially as an occupational
therapist, watching this silver tsunami come
online. We got more and more boomers retiring,
getting older, getting into the health care system,
having increased health care needs. in combination
with some other factors is leading to a boom
in multi -generational housing and we're going
to continue to see this and how i define multi
-generational housing or a multi -generational
home is having three or more generations living
under the same roof so that could be parents
with their kids and grandparents any combination
of generations really and it is a trend again
Going to continue seeing a lot of it. And the
two people or the two main groups I see buying
multi -generational homes are one, they are older
adults who are downsizing. But what they're actually
doing is they're looking to downsize, but at
the same time, bring in their younger children
into the mix. So they might be they already own
a home. They're looking to downsize or relocate.
They have children living somewhere who are,
you know, because of just how. expensive housing
has gotten, they're struggling to come up with
the money to buy a home by themselves. So what
they're doing is these older people are selling
their homes. They are buying new homes, bigger
homes to accommodate themselves as well as their
children. And so that's one group of people I
see buying multi -generational homes. I've seen
a number of these people and are helping them
find these very specific homes with very specific
floor plans. Of course, everybody is an individual
and looking for their own thing but in general
that's the first group in the second group are
parents Excuse me. Are people, usually middle
-aged people with older parents who are sort
of looking down the road, they might also be
looking to downsize or move. And they're doing
that with their parents in mind. So their parents
may be living somewhere else. They're getting
a little bit older. Maybe those parents are looking
to sell their property. And so the older middle
-aged parents are looking for homes that can
accommodate their aging parents. It's just sort
of the same thing, kind of in reverse. So you
have parents looking to bring their children
in because they're having trouble financially
affording a home and need a little bit of help.
And so they can all live together. And then you
have people with their aging parents who are
looking to buy their next home with their aging
parents in mind. Those are the two main groups
I'm seeing and I'm seeing more and more of them.
And so why do multigenerational housing? Well,
first, as I mentioned for everybody, but especially
younger people, the cost of buying a home has
gotten really expensive relative to wages. So
owning a home for many people is becoming more
and more out of reach, you know, and that's that's
for a lot of different reasons that I won't get
into. But let's just say overall that, you know,
relative to the median wage in America, that
purchasing a home has never been more expensive.
And so if they have parents who own homes or
own their own home, maybe they own more than
one home and they are looking to downsize or
they're looking to relocate, they have their
own limitations in mind and they want to sort
of help out their children at the same time.
They will look for a multi -generational home
because that really helps the kids out before
the parent, you know, leaves it in an estate,
like in their will. And more and more these days,
I'm wills and estates just. You know, you need
to give it away. Like if you have an estate and
you have children who are, you know, young, young
adults kind of struggling or even not like the
best time to give away your wealth and to pass
that down is when the kids need it, because odds
are when you pass away, they'll already. be established
in some way and it won't help them as much. Like
if you can help them now, go ahead and do it.
So I do enjoy seeing that as a trend where these
folks are buying homes for their younger children
so they can cohabitate. So there's a huge monetary
reason to buy multi -generational housing just
from an affordability standpoint. And healthcare,
too. The cost of healthcare has gone up. The
cost of individual care, as far as nursing homes,
assisted living, is astronomical. And so another
component of it, and you can put this in a cost
-saving category or quality of care, but it also
involves cutting down on that cost to have the
family members taking care of each other. So
having the younger family members. Taking care
of older family members as far as like keeping
an eye on them, you know, making sure their laundry's
done, preparing meals, like basic stuff, non
-medical stuff, but very important stuff, very
important aspects in regards to health care,
because having to pay somebody to do that or
sending them to an assisted living is really
expensive. And so I think for a lot of people,
the option to have their older folks living closer
to them and by living closer to them, I mean
living under the same roof really solves a lot
of problems. in regards to like peace of mind
with healthcare quality and just being able to
keep an eye on those older parents. And that
sort of transitions into the non -monetary reasons
for multi -generational living. And they are
enormous. We live in a lonely culture. We tend
to separate. We move away. We value independence.
We don't value interdependence. And so more and
more elderly folks are living lonely lives. And
we all are. Like, it's not just limited to the
elderly. I feel like everybody living in America,
at least, is experiencing loneliness to a certain
degree, like just because of the way society
is set up. So I do feel like having multi -generational
living, more than one generational living in
the home, creates just a more warm and connected
social infrastructure. So I may have my children,
they live with me. And if I have grandma living
with me, she can provide some child care. So
that's, you know, another economic component
because child care is also super expensive. So,
man, we really have like a trifecta of cost cutting
here with regards to just housing in general,
pooling resources to buy a home, multigenerational
home. We have the health care component cutting
down on the health care costs by providing. supervision
and basic amenities like laundry and food and
just keeping an eye out and providing some help
here and there, which is huge. And then child
care, also expensive, also can solve that need
if the grandparents or older generation is able
to watch out for the children. This creates,
I mean, an immense advantage for families, I
believe, because they can save on some child
care and also just the. having them closer to
their grandparents. I just believe there's such
a huge mental health. a benefit to that and a
social benefit. And I don't have any, I don't
have any stats on this, but I mean, if you look
at blue zones, like, you know, Italy and Okinawa
and in Japan and stuff, like they have more connection
and they have more intergenerational connection.
And so I think that just having everybody together,
having the children more exposed to the older
generation, having them interacting more often,
sharing knowledge, sharing their experiences
is just, you can't put a monetary. value on that
so i think that's huge and not to mention like
stronger marriages i don't live in a multi -generational
household although i am thinking about it really
i think that's going to be in my future as well
and i think that's going to be tremendous but
like just getting like date nights and time away
from the kids like if your parents They live
far away and, you know, you're not able to take
advantage of them just being able to come over
and watch the kids. Again, you're paying like
quite a bit for a babysitter. It's nuts. Like
even my 14 year old babysitter makes like, you
know, a pretty good wage. She just upped her
rates. So good for her. You know, I appreciate
her. She's like a little entrepreneur. So good
for her. But yeah, it's just an added cost. And
so those monetary and non -monetary costs like
they. They dovetail, and again, you can't put
a monetary benefit on all the social advantages
of having a multi -generational. home. I think
it's a movement. I'm going to hot take. It's
a movement. And I think it's kind of a revolution.
And housing continues to be this expensive. And
health care continues to be this expensive. And
child care continues to be this expensive, which
I don't see it getting cheaper anytime soon.
I think it's going to be a revolution in living
and how we live. And I can only see that being
a good thing, obviously. You know, you got to
be kind of conscious about it. And there's bound
to be some conflicts and boundaries that need
to be set. And, you know, everyone needs to be
an adult. And I'm sure that sometimes you're
going to just be like, you know, this is kind
of crazy. But at the end of the day, I think,
you know, the days of like, as far as living
goes and being like independent and everybody's
living in their separate little. home i i can
see that getting less and less and again i think
that's beneficial for society if i may have an
opinion on that because you know we definitely
live in in a less cohesive more separate lonelier
society and so i think multi -generational housing
like solving a lot of problems. Some of them
are practical, some of them are more esoteric,
but I think it's a good thing. And so that brings
us to the question of what should you be looking
for in a multi -generational home? And just shameless
plug, as an occupational therapist trained. especially
trained in such things as aging in place and
accessibility. If you're looking for a multi
-generational home, you can always schedule a
100 % no pressure free consult chat where we
can talk about all these things. You can choose
to use my services or not. I'm happy to help.
You can do that by emailing me at doug at dougvarinas
.com or going to TidyCal. like tidy calendar,
tidycal .com backslash Doug Varinas to schedule
a chat with me. I would love to just. get your
thoughts, see how we might be able to work together
and just be able to answer your questions in
a super stress -free, casual way. So some of
the things I would be looking for in a multi
-generational home are having at least a primary
suite and a main bathroom on the ground level.
An entirely ground level home is great, but in
my experience, I've seen it where it's good to
have some separation between the generations.
So again, this is going to be very individual.
individual and according to everyone's needs.
But in general, you're going to need to have
some an accessible bedroom and bathroom on the
ground floor. This is something that all of my
multi -generational folks are looking for because
you don't want to be walking up and down stairs.
And so there are ways around that. There's like
stair lifts and stuff where you can, you know,
I'm thinking of a movie right now. I think it's
like Home Alone or something anyway, where the
little you sit on the thing and it takes you
up the stairs. You know, I've seen elevators
in places. that can get really expensive. So
it's good to consult and think about these things
beforehand so you can get a jump on them and
kind of avoid those renovation expenses. So ground
floor. Related to that is going to be stepless
entries or one -step entries into living spaces
and backyards. So an entrance should have no
steps or one step. Access to the backyard should
have no steps or one step. We're trying to eliminate
steps if you haven't. caught on as much as possible
just because they lower the risk of falls. For
one, a lot of falls happen on stairs and steps.
And they also provide for, you know, in the future,
if for some reason you'd have to use a wheelchair,
they add a little bit more of an easy accessible.
It's easier to put to modify those areas for
entrance instead of steps or stairs because then
it gets a lot more challenging and costly. And
so after that, I look for open concept. So wider
hallways, like a minimum 36 inch hallway. The
more open the spaces, the better. Again, this
has to do with mobility and also fall risk and
safety. So the more. narrow spaces you have to
negotiate. It's going to make it difficult if
you're using a cane or a walker or a wheelchair.
And then just having more stuff in a smaller
space increases the risk of falls. So open concept
is preferable with clear sight lines into different
rooms. Again, this is for safety and for ease
of mobility. So I would definitely look at a
more open concept. Home. Next up is going to
be, so in the bathroom, huge. Huge area, huge
concern for falls, slips, falls, injuries. I'm
going to look for walk -in showers or roll -in
showers. So, you know, a very small step or no
step into the shower is going to be preferable.
And if you can get that on that ground level
bathroom, that's going to be the best option.
But at least having one bathroom with a walk
-in or roll -in shower, again, depending on your
specific situation, you know, you're going to...
There's other factors that are going to be involved
in that bathroom, looking at, you know, non -skid
surfacing for the shower. You know, you may have
some sort of grab bars or a bench or a shower
seat. That's a that's, you know, again, it's
very personal. But at the bare minimum for the
home, I would look at a walk in or roll in shower.
And let's see, you know, and a lot of people,
the last one on my list is. Something that people
sometimes forget when looking at a multigenerational
home for, you know, especially older generation,
but for everybody is just being closer to amenities.
So and that includes the, you know, the hospital
or whatever health care is needed, but also just
like close to parks, close to classes that the
person is taking or, you know, a walkable neighborhood
that's, you know, more that has sidewalks. So
it's a little safer. You know, that's going to
be, you know, people are going to have different
interests, but you don't want to be far from
those from those interests and amenities. You
know, you want to kind of you want to have access
to them, be able to easily. participate in those
activities that are going to really enrich your
life, especially if you're older. You don't want
to have to be driving long distances. If for
some reason you weren't able to drive, that's
going to make it incredibly inconvenient to add
these things further. So I always suggest that
you're around the amenities that you use and
enjoy when looking at a multi -generational home.
Because a lot of these homes, some of them are,
you know, they might be on acreage or something
and they're kind of out. You know, they're out,
they're further away from the amenities. So it's
something to consider when looking for these
multi -generational homes. So that about wraps
it up. Multi -generation is here to stay. There's
several reasons to buy a multi -generational
home. And that could be for parents who are looking
to downsize and who are looking to help their
children out by including them on the purchase
of a home. Or this also includes the sandwich
generation, middle -aged folks who are looking
to buy a new, usually bigger home to accommodate
an aging parent. I mentioned some of the cost
reasons and some of the... the non -monetary
reasons that multi -generation is going to take
off. I hope you enjoyed this. Let me know in
the comments what you think about multi -generational
living and where you think it's going. And especially
if you live in a multi -generational home, I'd
love to hear about your experience. Drop something
in the comments. Let me know what your experience
is like. And I look forward to seeing you soon.
You guys take care. See you on the next show.