After three years of marriage, Tom and Merriel Lupfer were ready to buy a house in northern New Jersey. But the market was not ready for them. By the time couples (teachers from both public schools) started watching, “Starter Homes was priced because it was a starter home,” says Tom. “They were very expensive.”
They found fixer uppers that work with some hard work. But when Merriel’s parents saw the state of devastation, they thought it was a bad idea. Instead, they proposed that the pair be moved to a 1957 split-level ranch.
“We decided right away, this sounds great,” Tom says. “We knew it would come with a unique set of challenges, but the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.” Fifteen years later, the twin daughters said, “If you were to buy that fixer upper in 2010, it would be hard to think of anything about our lives,” says Merriel.
It turns out that the Lupfer family was ahead of the curve. Once a relic of the 19th century agricultural economy era, the multi-generational homes, which live under the same roof of multiple ages, have made a major comeback. In fact, this lifestyle quadrupled between 1971 and 2021, involving 60 million or 18% of the US population, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of the latest US Census Bureau data.
It is not only a trend rooted in economics, but also a change in cultural norms. Why is it happening and what are families doing to make multi-generational living arrangements work?
Why do more generations live together?
For a variety of reasons, more people are choosing to live in multi-generational homes. Naturally, the top one is related to finances.
High cost of a home
“In many metro areas, housing has become more expensive over the decades,” says Richard Fry, senior economist at Pew Research Center. However, thanks to the pandemic, the cost of buying a home has really skyrocketed in recent years. It is both the purchase price itself and the funds for the purchase (mortgage interest rate, that is). Plus, add a shortage of homes for sale, mainly due to delays in the construction of the house. Low inventory means fewer homes available, especially affordable homes, as starter homes are low on the builder’s priority list.
In short, homeownership is less affordable than almost any other era in US history. Not only do they buy a house, they keep it. Squeeze affects all ages. “In many cases, young families can’t buy their own home,” explains Donna Butts, executive director of Generations United, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit that focuses on intergenerational collaboration initiatives. “And then there are seniors with limited incomes trying to maintain their homes, but they may not have the income to keep them.”
Care concerns and costs
Another motivation for the growth of multi-generational living: caring for older families. In fact, the second most common reason to buy a multi-generational home is to take care of older parents. This is the National Association of Realtors (NAR) “Trends in Home Buyers and Sellers Generations for 2025” report, which was discovered (cost cuts are the first). As the ranks of older adults are expanding, the needs are increasingly pressing.
“Families want to care for and support each other in the home environment as their loved ones’ age, but the financial burden certainly costs some. This has become more pronounced during the pandemic, with the early spread of Covid-19 in nursing homes.”
However, this trend continues, especially considering the rise in long-term care and other healthcare costs. Although families gathered for need during Covid, “we found out they were working for them and their family members, so they were together by choice,” Butts says.
Social Change
Owning your own home is an important part of America’s dream, but America may be a bit of an outlier in this regard. Multi-generational households are very common, if not the norm, in many other countries and cultures. Today, within the United States, the growth of ethnic groups with this tradition, such as Hispanic and Asian, is driving growth here, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center.
Lupe Luna’s story reflects this cultural influence. When Lupe’s husband lost his job in 2009, she bravely tried to handle household expenses with her income as a police station coordinator alone. But that was too much, and in 2012 the couple made the difficult decision to abandon their home for short sales. Rescue: Lupe’s parents warmly welcomed their daughter and son-in-law into a 4-bedroom, two-bathroom 1952 San Francisco Bay Area home.
“It was embarrassing – after all these years, you can’t make it yourself,” recalls Lupe. “But they understood.” Nine years later, Magpe’s unemployed adult daughter joined the house, putting three generations of family under one roof.
San Francisco Bay Area 3 Generation Home in Luperna
“Our culture is ours. It’s acceptable for other generations to live with you,” says Lupe, who moved from Mexico in the 1960s with his parents and siblings. “When we moved, I hadn’t lived together since we got married, but it was a long time. Still, the transition went pretty smoothly. I’m really lucky and blessed.”
Don’t leave the nest
The rise in multi-generational households reflects the fact that today’s younger generations, or 20s, appear to be slow to reach adult milestones. “They’ve been at school for a long time. They’re married later. They go out and form their own household at the age they’ve come,” Fry says. “They are also less likely to set up their own households and instead live in the homes they grew up in.” In fact, according to the Pew Research Center, ages 25 to 29 are the age group most likely to live with multiple generations.
How to build a house for multiple generations
Whether you’re buying a new home or upgrading an existing home, turning your property into a multi-generational home is about creating spaces that are perfect for everyone.
Start thinking about everyone living there (old people, middle-aged adults, children, or all three) and understand what you need to feel comfortable and functional while maintaining independence and privacy. That could mean adding bathrooms, changing burrows, or carving separate residential areas. For example, Lupfers imprinted the lower level of the house (the walk-out basement) into a small suite for parents to occupy.
Lupe’s family invested in changing the aged location to meet the elders and their restrictions, including replacing aged concrete patios for easier pedestrian navigation, and providing access to wheelchairs in the bathroom.
“Families want to care for and support each other in their home environment as their loved ones get older, but the financial burden certainly can curb costs for some.”
– Jessica Rautz, NAR Vice Chief Economist and Vice President of Research
Funding for renovations
Your first step is to come up with ways to fund your project. Here are some of your options and how they stack up on each other.
| Loan type | How it works | It’s perfect for | What do you know |
| Home improvement loan | Unsecured personal loans | Smaller or simpler projects with modification and repair projects | Fast funding, but usually there are higher interest rates and fees |
| Heloc/Home Equity Loan | Borrow against shares in your home ownership | Larger, Long-term Upgrade, Additional or Accessory Residential Units (ADUs) | Your home is collateral, but you usually need at least 15%-20% of stock |
| Home Renovation Loan | A combination of mortgage and loan | Buying a fixer upper or rehabilitating your current home | It’s not a very strong borrower standard, but substantial size and terminology restrictions |
| Jumbo Home Loan | A home mortgage with a valued home | Buy a new multi-generational home entirely | Higher loan restrictions that vary depending on where you live but usually have stricter borrowing standards |
| Construction loan | Short-term funding, paid in stages | Building a house | Required for a new build. Usually the fees are higher, but you can convert it to a traditional mortgage |
Multi-generational home life
Multi-generational families involve families, but it is also a business arrangement. This means that more people in multi-generational homes can contribute to maintenance and regular household expenses, such as mortgage payments, property taxes, and renovations. It is important among wage earners to come up with basic rules for who pays what.
When the magnifying glass was in, she told her parents that she would pay their gas, electricity, phone and internet bills. She then began paying for the groceries and splitting the costs of adding and modifying with her mother.
Caregiving discussions are also essential in multi-generational homes, either for young children (do not assume that grandparents are incorporated into babysitters) or older adults. The role of the magnifying glass became the role of a caregiver for the blind 88-year-old mother. She helped care for her father before she died.
Looking back at giving up on my own home to live with my family, it was, “in a way, a ‘blessing’ because my parents needed help too. “Maybe if they were much younger, it wouldn’t have worked that way.”
And don’t forget to think about it in the long run, especially when it comes to the legal aspects of things. What happens when one or both of the current owners of the house dies? Do other household members want to stay at home? If so, we recommend considering adding them to your home title, creating a joint ownership agreement, or setting up a provision of your will to ensure they can afford it. You can also see if there are tax and financial benefits to adding it to your mortgage.
Some consider multi-generational life as an early inheritance. The only child, Merriel recalls the argument that explained the rationale for her parents to make her move with Tom. So, “You live in it now, you can fix it, do what you want to do with it, with the understanding that you’ll have to do something with it.”
The future of multi-generational living
The affordability of housing is a major reason behind the multi-generational housing movement. But that doesn’t mean that it won’t become a permanent part of how Americans live today. “Some builders say the highest demand is multi-generational homes (for homes),” Butts says. “They are multipurpose. That extra space can be used as a rental unit.” For example, if your family no longer needs it.
Houses that house large families are “increased by changing dynamics,” says Rautz. “It’s driven by the aging baby boomers, those who want to age in different ways, and those who want to have their place differently than the past.”
For Merriel, it is building mutual support, strengthening family ties, and in a way, continuing the family tradition. The house she grew up and lives in now is also the house her mother grew up in. she His parents (Merriel’s grandparents) were the original owners. After they moved to a farm in upstate New York, it became her parents’ home, but was often shared with her grandfather on increasingly extended visits.
Does family history repeat itself? Merriel is open. “As long as this goes on with the four generations of women in my family who live in this house, it’s a pretty good run,” she says. “Maybe this isn’t the home I’ll live in for the rest of my life, but I do realize how beautiful it is. If I had the opportunity to give my kids the choices I had, it’s quite a bit without the pressure and expectations of continuing that legacy if they wanted.”
