REAL ESTATE TRENDS...GROWTH IN MULTIGENERATIONAL LIVING

A growing share of American households now has three or more generations of the same family living under the same roof. During much of the 19th and early 20th centuries, extended families who were living in tight quarters was the norm, before the post-World War II baby boom pushed more nuclear families to begin forming their own households. But a combination of economic, cultural, and social forces is helping to spur a new rise in multigenerational households.

Making sense of the story

• Extended families are increasingly driven to live together as a way to deal with housing affordability, and it is also a much more common phenomenon among rapidly growing Asian and Hispanic households.

• The share of U.S. households with more than three generations under the same roof rose during the Great Recession, and has stayed high.

• Farming communities and markets in the Southwest tend to have the highest proportions of multigenerational households.

• Metros with the highest proportions of multigenerational households also tend to have larger shares of residents that work in agriculture.

• Whites are less apt to live in a multigenerational household. But since 2000, the share of white multigenerational households has grown modestly.

• Multigenerational households have higher combined incomes than smaller households, but have lower incomes per capita.

• Asian multigenerational households are more likely to be headed by a member of the “middle” generation—an adult with dependent parents and children.