Over the past three years I’ve been talking about the “Waltons’ Effect”—how families will need to pool resources and live together in order to get by in the Era of Less. Last week the Census Bureau confirmed what we can see happening all around us. In fact, young adults have moved back in or are staying in parent homes while more grandparents are moving back in too. And as you would expect in down economic times more non-related adults also are living together.
According to the Census Bureau, the number of adults sharing households with family members or other individuals increased by more than 11% between 2007 and 2010, the latest data available. That amounts to close to 20% of all households and helps account for two million fewer occupied homes in the U.S., according to the Washington Post.
In typical recessions, this move-back-in phenomenon is expectable and short-lived. But the impacts of a generation of over-borrowing by consumers and government in addition to productivity gains (read technology enables companies to be more profitable using fewer U.S. employees) promises to stunt household formations in the ongoing slow, painful, and now possibly stymied economic recovery.
Read more...GlobeSt.com - “Waltons’ Effect” Confirmed - Trend Czar Article
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