The trend has been in place for 10 years or more: When builders talk to buyers, more and more of them are asking for mother-in-law suites in single-family homes.
Such added space provides an answer for children when aging parents signal that they will need a bit more help on a day-to-day basis.
Builders now are reporting a parallel trend: grandparents are buying homes in the same subdivisions as their children and grandchildren.
Apparently not all in-laws are as annoying as Frank and Marie from “Everybody Loves Raymond.” In fact, more families are moving next door, down the street or across the backyard from each other, say the builders.
“Parents follow children or children follow parents — we’re seeing more of both,” says Jennifer Lawrence, sales manager of Yorkville-based AMG Homes. “Especially in communities where we offer both ranches and two-stories, such as Kylyns Crossing in Yorkville and Nature’s Crossing in Plainfield, they can find homes nearby.”
“We’re seeing more buyers who consider the ‘adult active’ communities too old for them,” says Al Darwan, president of Buckingham Builders Corp. in Plainfield. “They’d rather be near their children — close but independent. Both families want their own space.”
Case in point: James and Carole Rose, who bought a house across the street from their son and daughter-in-law’s house in KLM Builders’ Woodland Ridge in Antioch.
“We’re very busy and keep a boat on the Chain of Lakes,” reports Carole Rose.
She retired when they moved to their new location from their former family home in Lake Zurich, but her husband is still working.
Living across the street from their grandchildren, ages 4 and 5, enables them to watch the youngsters grow up.
“They come over often and like to help me cook,” says Carole Rose. “I drop by and bring cakes and cupcakes.
“On weekends, we baby-sit while their parents go out. My son grew up close to his grandparents, so I want his kids to have that relationship, too.”
Grandmother Kathy Terry bought a home near her children for the second time.
First, she and her daughter, Jill Huddlestun, bought new homes in the same development in Oswego. After Jill and her husband, Steve, had a son two years ago and outgrew their house, the gang moved to ClearWater Springs in Plainfield.
Though Kathy Terry has a busy life, between her career in banking and traveling with friends, she enjoys being right down the street from her children. Her son and his family live nearby, too.
Kathy Terry and the Huddlestuns see each other every day and take evening walks together. Weekends, she is first on their call list when they need a babysitter for their son.
Mary and Tom Fosnow and Mary’s parents, William and Lillian Luby, are neighbors for the third time.
When the Fosnows married, they moved in next door to the Lubys. Then the two families bought new houses next door to each other in Mundelein.
Last year, they bought homes kitty-corner from each other in the Trails of Boone Creek in McHenry.
“When my kids were little, my parents watched them when I had to leave the house,” says Mary Fosnow. “Now, the kids are 12 and 15, so they can help their grandparents.”
Maintaining separate households is important to both families, says Fosnow.
“When you all live together, you have to negotiate everything,” she says.
“This way, we are independent but have the security of being nearby.”
“More time with the grandkids and less time mowing the lawn,” are what motivated Terry Hammer and his wife, Darlene, to buy in the Clublands of Antioch. Their home, still under construction, will be down the street from that of their daughter, Amy Moore. She and her husband, Cliff, have three children, ages 1, 4 and 9.
The two families talk daily and get together several times a week, but they look forward to being closer after they move.
“It will be nice to just walk down the street instead of having to get into the car,” says Hammer.
Dr. Mohammed Jafferi, a retired physician from Cook County Hospital and a widower, took this trend one step further.
He and his four grown children bought a cul-de-sac. They will move into their five homes in Remington Lakes in Crest Hill this winter.
The Jafferi family, which includes four grandchildren and one on the way, now live together in a six-flat in Oak Park.
“This will allow us to eat together, pray together and stay together,” says Jafferi. “When we face tragedy, we can support each other.”
The move will allow Jafferi to continue a family tradition. Raised in India, his extended family all lived within shouting distance.
This multigenerational nesting trend isn’t limited to single-family houses.
After Walter Hock and his wife, Lois, sold their family home in Franklin Park and bought a condo last year in One Bloomingdale Place in Bloomingdale, their granddaughter, Kelly Commers, left her parents’ home in Roselle and bought a unit in the same building.
The Hocks use the exercise room while Kelly swims in the pool.
“We see her several times a week,” says Hock. Though he and his wife are healthy and active, he says, “it is nice to know she’s here if we need her.”
While most of the grown children move because they want houses with more bedrooms and bathrooms, the grandparents are drawn to the builders’ ranches or two-story houses with first-floor master bedroom suites.
In addition to large kitchens and great rooms for family gatherings, Darwan says many of his grandparent-clients want room for hobbies such as woodworking.
“Having lots of bedrooms wasn’t important to me anymore,” says Jackie Weber, who bought a house in the same neighborhood as her son, Gary Barczak, and his family. “I wanted plenty of room to entertain.”
She chose a two-story model in Lakewood Trails in Minooka. It is a smaller version of the home where she raised her family in Naperville.
Bucking the empty-nester tendency to downsize, Kathy Terry upsized, choosing a home with plenty of room for visiting children and grandchildren.
“The interest rates were so low, I was able to buy more house and keep my monthly payments the same,” she says.
Living near the relatives isn’t for everyone, but enough families prefer this arrangement that the builders take notice.
Consider this: In a recent online poll conducted by Century21.com, 51 percent responded “family” when asked whom they preferred as neighbors.
Among other choices, 16 percent wanted movie stars nearby, 12 percent wanted pro athletes and 11 percent wanted to borrow their cups of sugar from historical icons.
Rock stars and politicians came in last, at 6 and 4 percent. Frank and Marie didn’t make the list.
