One Roof, Many Generations: Redefining The Single-Family Home
New homes are back in a big way — literally. This summer, a typical new house in Phoenix was more than 20 percent larger than a resale home as builders across the country add more space to accommodate post-recession lifestyles.
Take Jacque Ruggles' family, for example. Four women from three generations live under one roof.
"I'm the matriarch," Ruggles says. "I'm grandma."
Ruggles makes the monthly $1,789 mortgage payment on the 2,900-square-foot home in Gilbert, Ariz., which she bought new about a year and a half ago. Her daughter Marci Dusseault lives here, too, along with her college-aged daughter named Jamie.
"I'll eventually move out, but right now it's nice to not have to worry about a lot of bills and stuff, and I can focus on school," says Jamie, a student at Mesa Community College.
But the family affair did not stop there. Jamie's older sister moved in last November. Chelsie, 22, had been living on her own for a while, but ...
Family Matters: The Money Squeeze