"The empty nester moving into something a little bit more appealing," she added.

Michele is extremely funny, and is generally seen as a sweet empty nester.

One Westchester empty nester plans to move to Florida, but only for the month of March.

"There's still the retiree, the empty nester who's alone and the second-home buyer.

Technically, the label baby boomer empty nester includes both boomers and pre-boomers, now in their early to mid-50's.

"The big turning point in my life was that I became an empty nester," Ms. Barasch said.

"I had noticed people talking about not liking to cook for themselves," said Toni Lydecker, who calls herself an empty nester.

"Even if you're an empty nester, you want a refrigerator that's as big or bigger than the one you had when you were raising kids.

Terms like "empty nester," "yuppie" and "soccer mom" derived their meaning from targeted market studies.

"The younger empty nester is much more technologically savvy than its older counterpart," said Mr. Berkus.

"Our statistics show that one out of every four buyers in these luxury buildings is an empty nester coming from the suburbs," Mr. Koss said.

Amelia Bernstein, an empty nester who helps out her elderly parents and in-laws, said there are weeks when she picks up dinner every day at the store.

What Mr. Thompson's research has found so far about the younger empty nester is "to a person, there is no compromise on quality and amenities," he said.

"The price was higher than I expected," Mr. Keane, a married empty nester, said, "but if you want something bad enough you go the extra mile."

So, when this last year was over, Magnus would be going to Boston's Back Bay, and Eric would be an empty nester.

Janis Battle, 53, a widowed empty nester, bought one of the three-bedroom apartments in Mr. Roszak's first project after debating whether to move into Chicago.

Kristen Scott, an architect in Seattle, said about one-third of her empty nester clients asked for separate bedrooms, which can cost a few thousand dollars to more than $100,000.

John Malick, an architect (and empty nester) in Piedmont, Calif., noted that many parents leave children's rooms intact as "shrines" for a year or two or even longer.

But Pulte, a national home builder with projects in 27 states, has seen laundry rooms gain in size in the last two years in houses built for what it calls the active adult, or the empty nester.

North Shore Village is likely the community's most diverse neighborhood architecturally and Garden Park Village, which opened in 2009, is a fully maintained neighborhood designed with the 55+ empty nester in mind.

SROs are a viable housing option for students, single tenants, seasonal or other traveling workers, empty nester widows/widowers, or others who do not desire or require large dwellings or private domestic appliances.

And in Katonah, Carol Hosdale, an exercise instructor and empty nester, might decide to combine an inventive salad with store-bought lasagna for the dinner with wine and candles she and her husband enjoy every evening.

"The strength of the city's housing market is its ability to attract not only the move-down empty nester but also affluent younger people," said Tracy Cross, president of a real estate consulting firm in suburban Schaumburg that bears her name.

At the other end of the political spectrum, a think tank, the Intergenerational Foundation claims that "empty nester" homeowners aged 60 and above should be subject to increased property taxes to encourage them to sell up and trade down to smaller properties.

Losses that may lead to grief include the death or separation of a loved one, loss of a job, death or loss of a beloved pet, or any number of other changes in life such as divorce, becoming an "empty nester," or retirement.