In her book, Becoming Grandma: The Joys and Science of the New Grandparenting, the journalist Leslie Stahl writes, “In various surveys, nearly three-quarters of grandparents say that being a grandparent is the single most important and satisfying thing in their life. Most say being with their grandkids is more important to them than traveling or having financial security.” And in fact, a new survey from the University of Michigan’s National Poll on Healthy Aging seems to underscore the mental health benefits that grandparents derive from their grandchildren. Among the survey’s findings? Grandparents who see their grandchildren more often tend to feel less isolated or lacking in companionship compared to those who don’t see grandchildren often. So how can grandparents regularly interact with their grandchildren? One notable trend provides an answer. According to the housing analytics website Zonda, “Baby Chasers” are on the rise.

What exactly is a “Baby Chaser?” According to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, Baby Chasers are older adults who move to be close to their adult children and especially their grandchildren. As one man interviewed for the article said, “I don’t want to be Grandpa on a screen.” As older workers become less tied to a specific location and as older adults generally have more disposable income (or houses that will sell for many multiples of what they cost), it’s now becoming increasingly common for grandparents to move (especially to the Southern United States) to live close to their adult children and grandchildren, who may have settled in the south due to lower costs of living, job opportunities, and lifestyle. Zonda publishes a yearly “Baby Chasing” index, ranking cities by growth of residents aged 25-44 and 60-79. According to a recent analysis, Austin, Charleston, and Jacksonville are the most popular cities for attracting adult children and their Baby Chasers. Moreover, 3 of the top 10 cities in this analysis were in Texas. A follow-up story on Marketplace further elucidated what’s going on. Many Baby Boomers now have the wealth to make this sort of move to be close to their children/grandchildren, and for many, they wind up in 55+ communities, so they get the best of both worlds: proximity to their grandchildren and a lifestyle suited to their interests and time in life. Austin has topped this list for the past 4 out of 5 years, and what’s fascinating is that the migration of younger adults is now influencing the movement patterns of older adults. This also works well for families when children may need or want less attention from grandparents, but grandparents may then be aging into a point of life where they need more help.

However, this is a significant lifestyle change and milestone event for many older adults, one that may not always work out for the best. The burdens of moving at an older age, in and of themselves, can be more demanding than one realizes. Journalist Paula Span, who writes The New Old Age column for the New York Times, recently described her challenging move to be closer to her adult daughter (and more importantly granddaughter), even though she was only moving from New Jersey to Brooklyn. Describing the high cost of finding an appropriate rental apartment at age 74, she advised that older movers secure a move manager to help with the organization, packing, and unpacking. While she’s clearly happy she made the move, it’s not without its emotional costs. As she writes, “There’s no way to outsource the emotional effort of leaving a town where you’ve spent 40 years.” Similarly, writer Judy Kugel recently described her move from her beloved Cambridge to be close to her son and grandchildren in Maryland, and she describes the move as “the worst decision of our lives.” While she and her husband tried a pilot run of renting a house near her son for a month and found it so enjoyable that they put their name on a retirement community waiting list, when it unexpectedly came to moving, the results were somewhat disastrous. As she writes, “We left everything we knew to live in assisted living near our son and his family. What did we learn? You’re never too old to totally blow it.” Within 6 months of moving to Maryland, and having sold their previous house, they moved back to Cambridge, this time to an apartment. Interestingly, one of the most awful parts of the move for Kugel and her husband was the “mediocre food” and “old people” they encountered in their new community. (One recent survey of older adults has found that many are reluctant to move to senior communities because they are worried about the food choices).

So while living close to the grandchildren may have its upside, and many are thrilled to do so, for others, the upheaval of moving to a new part of the country and having to integrate into a new community may lessen the joy and happiness this type of move is supposed to bring. For one way to try to analyze whether your new place will be a good fit for you, take out your map and read here.