Articles
The Multi-Generational Home
by Bill Jardine Sep 19, 2006
Hallmark of the Future?
You are now dealing daily with the high cost of housing, and it isn’t just that construction costs have steadily increased to the point where it is hard to construct anything that fits in your budget. The high cost of housing affects the price of cleaning ladies, the price of lettuce and the availability of decent workers everywhere in the community. Want to hire a top astronomer? Where can he or she afford to live?
The fact is that there are areas of the country where weather, recreation, culture and medicine attract lots of retirees, and Waimea is one of those places. Prices are bound to get higher as retiring Boomers fuel demand in the next decade.There is only so much that can be done to make housing cheaper. You can find cheap land (not likely), cheaper construction methods (factory made modular housing) and cheaper financing (60-year amortization schedules). After that it is all just head-scratching and pencil-biting. The result is that we really can’t do much to make things easier for our kids, yet the heart and soul of our community depends on their return and well-being. We will always get a certain number of young families with one form or another of donated wealth, and we welcome them with open arms, but they are few and far between … and too often they aren’t our Waimea kids.
It is time for us all to reconsider multi-generational houses as a possible solution to not only our high cost of housing but also the terrible family drift that has infected the last two generations of Americans.
Our grand parents and great grand parents took multi-generational housing just as much for granted as they did having strong families to care for the young and old alike. Our social fabric two generations ago came from those close family and community relationships rather than the latest popular television show.
Today’s multigenerational home does not have to equal everyone in the kitchen at breakfast. Hawaii County’s “Ohana” ordinance may allow old-timers to expand or remodel their nearly empty houses to provide an extra kitchen and as many new bedrooms as may be needed for getting the next generation back. As time goes by the old-timers can move into the smaller quarters as the kids and grand kids fill up the old quarters. There are even great estate planning tools that will allow folks to gradually donate their houses to their kids without ever leaving or giving up a dime of their spending money.
•If you are interested in helping your children get a start in Waimea so that you don’t have to spend the rest of your life visiting Des Moines, Detroit or Decatur, call us. We can help.
•If you are wondering if your declining years are going to be spent worrying about ending up alone in your big old house, call us. We can help.
•If you are interested in dreaming about just how great it would be if your kids could come back to Waimea … call us. We can help
You will be glad that you did.
Imua,
William N. Jardine®
