Corona Daily 035: Everyone under One Roof

Before the pandemic, the different generations of the Crafts family couldn’t meet each other without flying.

Trevor and Ellen Crafts, the young couple, lived with Riley, their five year old daughter in California. Trevor’s parents, Edward and Heather Crafts lived in Texas. Ellen’s mother, Jackie Chirico lived on her own in the state of Nevada.

For the first time in their memory, Trevor and Ellen couldn’t meet their parents for a whole year. Christmas came and went with all restrictions intact. Riley couldn’t go to a playgroup, nor was it recommended to hire a child caretaker. Trevor and Ellen both worked online. It was a juggling act to take time off their laptops to look after Riley. On weekends, sometimes more often, they called their parents. Both grandmothers complained Riley had grown a year older without them kissing her once.

In March 2021, together they hatched a revolutionary plan. They listed their respective houses in California, Texas and Nevada for sale. They had heard the US housing market was hot. Soon they understood how hot. Within a week, all three houses got sold at prices higher than their expectations. Their combined windfall was $2.6 million.

In May 2021, with that sizeable amount, they bought an 8.5 acre property in Connecticut, a state none of them had ever lived in. It was a truly grand house (see picture) with five bedrooms, a guest house, a barn with a studio.

Trevor and Ellen began their zoom calls in peace. Riley was happy to be pampered by the grandparents. In the evenings and on weekends, the large family started having meals together. Their isolation ended, the grandparents could hold Riley in their arms and kiss her every day.

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In the USA, single family homes are shooting up in prices. Many families want extra rooms as offices to work from home. With remote work, people are happy to move to bigger houses in suburbs. In fact, properties at the top end, such as the $2.6 million villa bought by the Crafts are easier to find.

With stories of the number of deaths in nursing homes, people were worried about their aged parents. Particularly in Asian and Latino families, multi-generation living went up. In a national US survey, during the first virus wave (April-June 2020), 15% of home buyers said they bought multi-generational homes, a record in the last decade.

Those who had babies during the pandemic found co-living with their parents mutually beneficial. With schools shut, children were entertained by their grandparents, while the parents worked.

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The average price of an American home went up by 24% to $350,300. The earlier trend was accelerated during the pandemic. May 2021 was the 111th consecutive month of year-over-year price increase.

For some landlords, tenants stopped paying rents and simply left. Those landlords often opted to invite their families to fill up those apartments to bring everyone under the same roof.

In April 2021, a Google search for “when is the housing market going to crash” went up by 2500% compared to March 2021. This is now the most popular search question in the USA. It is followed by “should I buy a house” and “sell my house”. Earlier it was typical to wait for at least 60 days since the first advertisement, before the house could find the buyer. Now houses are sold within 20 days on average.

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In India, three generations living under one roof is the norm. In rich nations of Europe and North America, family units are increasingly becoming smaller, often logically ending in a person living alone.

The pandemic and the resultant shutdowns have done a great service to make people understand the comfort, convenience and happiness of living in multi-generational homes. Of course, there are challenges being close to your parents (or children) on a daily basis. But in $2.6 million homes, those challenges are easier to manage.

With all its difficulties, multi-generational living may bring greater happiness than living on your own. It took a pandemic for many families to realize this.

Ravi