Starter home-can they be bought for the kids?

[Janna]

What I am wondering is, when you create your sim, whether as a single or a couple and you move, what happens to the starter home?  I have seen my starter homes and I have wondered, does the programing set another family in them, newly created ones, or can I move my sims offspring (that I move out) into one of them? 
My family that has five kids, they have moved three times, first home for mom and dad as a starter.   Then moved after the second child was born and I have just moved them to another house that has four bedroom, and I was able to do some remodeling and make it five bedrooms.  Number five has been born, a boy.  Now three girls and two boys which will, when they reach teen, fulfill dad's wish of surrounded by family. 

So, can I move some of those kids to the previous homes, will the program use them for new families or are they kept empty? 

[MarianT]

Sometimes the game will move a new family in, and sometimes it will still be empty when your sims' children grow up. You can always evict the family that has moved in, if you like.

[Pam]

When you buy a new home and move out of your starter home (or any home), it become just another empty house in the game that will either house another family eventually or just stay empty.  You can move your family's children into it if it's empty, but you have to pay for it just like you did the other new homes.  The way you do this is to select the Sim you want to move out and use the phone or computer to Move.  It will be a moving screen just like you used to move to the other houses.  The difference is that you'll only move whichever Sims you want to leave and the rest will stay.  You'll choose a house for them and it's cost will be deducted from your family funds.  Be sure to leave your existing house as the active household or else you'll go with the ones who are moving and keep controlling them.  After you pick out the house and sort out who is to move, click the check mark and your Sims will leave and go to the new house.

If you don't have the money in family funds, there's another option for moving out the grown kids.  Do the same thing with the Move option, but instead of choosing a house, click the Kick Out option.  They will leave and move into an available house in town.  Follow them with the game camera when they leave so that you'll know where they end up living. 

[Janna]

Learned the hard way to make sure I had it marked right to move the whole family.  Second time I did a move I accidently moved just myself and lelft my family behind.  Fortunately, I save just before I move so it didn't affect, just went to main menu without saving and then restated my game.
I will probably have to use the cheat for the 50,000 simoleons, I build or remodel nice homes.  Hubby and I lived for the first five years iof our marriage in lousy,tiny home and lousy, tiny apartments; so I wanted a nice home, not fancy, but nice kitchen and room enough to swing a cat. 

Added  Thanks for the help everyone, especially Pam; I was really, really hoping I could move one of the kids back to their old home.