Brooklyn Brownstones Stay All in the Family
This morning The Observer reports on how many kids who grew up in houses in the Brownstone Belt are, as adults, moving back in with mom and dad. The trend is seen as having a lot to do with brownstone neighborhoods now being hip and yet frequently unaffordable for recent grads who might otherwise make…
This morning The Observer reports on how many kids who grew up in houses in the Brownstone Belt are, as adults, moving back in with mom and dad. The trend is seen as having a lot to do with brownstone neighborhoods now being hip and yet frequently unaffordable for recent grads who might otherwise make a go of it alone:
All the graduates interviewed for this story agreed that living on your own in New York City was possible, especially if you had a well-paying corporate job. But for those who hope to someday own property in the areas where they grew up, or to make a career in a less lucrative field, living with your parents makes a certain kind of sense; you can’t afford not to.
The bigger question, maybe, is how much more prevalent this phenomenon is in brownstone areas (which often have bigger houses than in other parts of the city) than it is in other NYC neighborhoods or even the U.S. as a whole. Could this just be part of a larger cultural shift in which more kids are coming back home post-college, or is it indeed more common in brownstone Brooklyn?
Full Brownstone Nests) [NY Observer]
Photo from Orchard Lake.
1:00PM has very good points. it has escaped a lot of people that single-family didn’t always used to mean single-generation.
The trend of living with parents might be new to the suburbs and regions outside NYC. But it’s totally traditional to NYC. NYC has always been expensive and most large brownstones have always had more than one generation living in them. Families who own a property large enough to house their post-college kids in NYC are at a huge advantage over families elsewhere or families in small coops or condos. Because they can provide free or low-cost housing in the best job market in the country, actually the ONLY job market in the country for certain fields if your kid chooses one of those.
In many fields, nobody gets paying jobs right out of college. Kids have to intern for as long as a year. So either they’re able to do the internship nearby and live at home, or the parents have to send them money for rent.
The depression-era parents believed helping kids made them lazy. It’s not true and secondly, sorry, nobody has a choice anymore in this changed economy and job market. If you can help them you do.
1:25: It’s called renting. Who says you buy right out of college? Are you for real?
Moreteasir: Did your mother also pay for college? If you had to pay, I could see how she helped you there. If she also paid for college, I would have to ask how you racked up so much debt.
Listen, how else can a young couple out of school, making maybe $100k combined possibly afford to buy anything in a nice area? Its going to cost you $400k or so for a nice 2 bedroom (if you can find one that cheap). How can they save, pay rent, etc., any ever hope to buy something with the current real estate prices???
Everyone here will say “they did it” but housing prices are now way out of proportion to income then they have been.
Listen, how else can a young couple out of school, making maybe $100k combined possibly afford to buy anything in a nice area? Its going to cost you $400k or so for a nice 2 bedroom (if you can find one that cheap). How can they save, pay rent, etc., any ever hope to buy something with the current real estate prices???
Everyone here will say “they did it” but housing prices are now way out of proportion to income then they have been.
Listen, how else can a young couple out of school, making maybe $100k combined possibly afford to buy anything in a nice area? Its going to cost you $400k or so for a nice 2 bedroom (if you can find one that cheap). How can they save, pay rent, etc., any ever hope to buy something with the current real estate prices???
Everyone here will say “they did it” but housing prices are now way out of proportion to income then they have been.
My family and I just bought a large brownstone together, after not having lived in the same house (and even city) since college. We’re really close-knit and the cost and time to get to see each other was getting ridiculous. So finally i just looked for a big enough space where we can all live together — my brother (30) and his fiancee, myself, my brother’s business partner (they use the garden floor as their office), my parents (in their 50s) and myself (mid 20s). At first I thought I would be a freak among my peers, and thought my friends would leave me for dead when they realized I was moving BACK IN with my family (which isn’t the case — the entire family is moving in with me, ha ha). But now I see most of them either doing something similar with siblings and close friends, or at least considering it. they’re also buying second homes (upstate, costa rica) with their parents.
I think if you have a healthy relationship with your family, it’s a smart way to consolidate costs and to be able to live in a really beautiful, mature neighborhood. These giant houses are so sad and lonely with just one family in them. For us, it’s been a really tremendous experience — occasionally challenging because there’s always the tense moment when we have to put our own petty egos aside for a general group decision — but pretty much how I had always hoped I would live my life: close to the people I love, in a house we ALL put our money, sweat and tears into, and with room for my kids and perhaps grandkids to call home.
As a brownstone owner, I welcome having the option in the future to have the room for extended family living. I will definitely offer my two sons the option to live at home to allow them the chance to build up savings and be better positioned to buy homes and start faamiles of their own.
Given the direction this country is headed in (greater economic inequality, economic decline, high costs of living), the future will be all about maximizing your ability to pass on and perpetuate your economic advantages in the next generation, I’m sorry to say.
Back when that photo was taken, it was expected that at least 3 generations would be living in a house. That’s part of the reason turn of the century houses can be so big. There were no nursing homes to ship Grammy and Grandad off to, and families were bigger because it was an accepted fact that not all of your children would live to adulthood.
Now so many of us complain that brownstones aren’t big enough because kids can’t have huge bedrooms to themselves, or you can’t put in a private bath for every bedroom. Have we gotten spoiled or what?
I think part of the reason why many families are so disfunctional is because we leave the nest too soon, with too many issues unresolved, and then only connect on major holidays. Granted, that is the only way for some people for various reasons, but the American family has greatly changed in the last 50 years, and scarcely resembles the people in that photo.