Adult children living at home is one of the main reasons that Dave Liniger, founder of RE/MAX, cites for helping the housing market in 2012.  Ordinarily 5 million adult children between 18 and 30 years of age, live at home with their parents.  Of course this means 5 million adult children who may very well want to be not only living back on their own, but also taking advantage of great homes and housing prices in places like Lacey, Olympia, Tumwater, and areas around JBLM.  At this point in our great recession, and in the current market, there are 29 million adult children at home.  That's a lot of parents and children who would like to see the improving economy enable them to purchase a home.  There has been a marked increase in real estate activity for the last several weeks.  Low prices + low interest rates = a great time to buy (and perhaps an empty nest...again!)  :-)