'Boomerang Kids' Bring a Little Real Estate Bump When Moving Back Home

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Get ready, mom and dad -- junior's moving back home, and he may be bringing his sister with him.

That's the message parents are getting as the sour economy has forced so-called "boomerang" kids to give up apartment living and move back with mom and dad.

PulteGroup, a Bloomington Hills, Mich., homebuilding firm, has the facts from its latest Home Index survey.

It not only says those boomerang kids (aged 16 to 30) are heading back home, but that in many cases parents report other family members, especially grandparents, are moving in as well.

The survey says 14% of parents say children who had left home to make their way in the world are back under the parental roof and that 31% of parents included in the study say they expect a child to move back home in the future.

On the grandparent front, 15% of parents say they have one or both older parents living with them, while 32% say that will happen "eventually."

It's hardly a shock when PulteGroup points out that finances are the primary reason family members are coming back home. But the firm says another big reason is "familial relationships" that can "build a better bond among the generations."

The trend of family members moving back home may help the economy, if on a limited basis. To accommodate having a child or grandparent move back home, mom and dad are digging deep and paying for home expansion and remodeling projects to make room, PulteGroup says. Some are even buying bigger homes.

According to the survey:

72% of parents with grandparents living with them (or who will have them living with them) will renovate or buy a new home.

49% of parents with adult children living with them, or expecting them to move back into the nest, will renovate or buy a new home.

62% of women moving into a family home value a separate living space, compared with 46% of men.

40% of parents who already share their homes say "bickering" is the worst problem from having family members move in.

The most common renovation is the addition of a live-in suite for grandparents, who put a higher premium on privacy than adult children.

Dealing with boomerang kids and aging grandparents may just be part of that "new normal" sociologists keep talking about. Even so, that empty nest for a growing number of moms and dads isn't so empty anymore.

Whether they like it or not.