More New Parents Moving Home With Their Own Parents

BOSTON (CBS) - It isn't just new college grads who are moving back in with Mom and Dad.

More "new" parents are increasingly heading home to live with their parents as a way to save money.

As experienced parents know all too well, babies are expensive.

"You don't necessarily think about it before you have a kid, and then all of sudden you're like wait a second, how do we make this work financially?" said new mom Alexis Kort.

WBZ-TV's Michelle Roberts reports

So Kort, and her growing family, moved in with her parents.

"We were thinking that would maybe be for three months, maybe six months, and it turned out to be a year," she said.

This is a living arrangement that is growing in popularity, according to Carmen Wong-Ulrich of Baby Center Financial.

"Young couples, when they have children or they're planning on having a child, are moving back in with their parents," Wong-Ulrich said. "Ten percent of young women are staying living at home with their parents to save money to have children. This is a new trend."

It is a trend that in some families extends beyond help with housing. A survey found nearly 30 percent of new parents now get financial assistance from their parents.

This can be a problem for the older generation if it cuts into retirement planning. Ted Beck of the National Endowment for Financial Education has this advice for well-meaning Baby Boomers.

"Make sure that your own financial retirement plan is healthy, and won't be damaged too badly," he explained.

Multi-generational living can work, but experts say expectations need to be hashed out ahead of time.

Kort sorted out these types of details with her parents ahead of time.

"We would pay for groceries, and they weren't going to charge us for rent," she explained.

This arrangement worked out for Kort and everyone else involved. She and her husband Josh were able to save enough for their own house while appreciating some quality time with her parents.

"It was nice to rediscover a relationship with my parents as a parent. I don't think our vision was ever, oh let's go live with our parents again when we are older, but you know, it worked out," added Kort.