More and more families, from grandma to junior, are choosing to live together. What’s driving this trend and how can you best serve this growing market?

By Daniel Rome Levine

For Manuel Vargas, CRS, space can get a little tight in his office during client meetings. That’s because Vargas, a broker associate with Keller Williams Realty Landmark in Queens, N.Y., specializes in working with families in which multiple generations are looking to live together under one roof.

Vargas recently helped three generations of one family, 15 people in all, who pooled their savings and paid $950,000 for a house in which the parents, their three married sons and their son’s children could all live together. The home was specially designed for such families and was divided into four separate units, each ranging in size from 700 to 1,100 square feet.

The family bought the home using a Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan. They pooled their resources equally in order to come up with a 5 percent down payment, or $47,500, and the balance was covered by the loan. Vargas says, in general, up to five people can co-sign on an FHA loan, which makes it possible to secure a loan even though each individual alone may not earn enough to qualify for a loan.

U.S. Population Living in Multigenerational Family Households, 1940-2008, in Millions
1940	32
1950	32
1960	27
1970	26
1980	28
1990	35
2000	42
2008	49

“This is a huge trend right now,” says Vargas. Indeed, the number of multigenerational families living together is on the rise in New York and across the country — up over 30 percent to 5.1 million households between 2000 and 2010, according to the U.S Census Bureau.

A 2010 Pew Research Center study found a record 49 million Americans, or 16.1 percent of the total U.S. population, living in households that contained at least two adult generations or a grandparent and at least one other generation.

When Money’s Tight, Families Unite

The trend is being driven by economics and immigration, say experts. In tough economic times, many families find it makes sense to pool resources and live together, says Generations United, a public policy group focused on intergenerational issues. A 2011 survey it conducted found that for 66 percent of people living in multigenerational households, economic conditions were the primary motivation for coming together.

The down economy is also forcing many young people, especially recent college graduates, to move back home with their parents if they fail to find well-paying jobs, or any jobs at all. At the same time, many of these homeowners’ elderly parents are looking to move in with them in order to have the care and support of family members, as well as to avoid the high cost of assisted living.

In addition, increased immigration over the last 40 years, primarily among Latinos and Asians, has contributed to the trend, according to the Pew Center. “Like their European counterparts from earlier centuries, these modern immigrants are far more inclined than native-born Americans to live in multigenerational family households,” says the Pew study.

One House, Many Needs

Whatever the circumstances motivating families to come together in one household, REALTORS^® can play a key role in helping them realize their dream. No doubt, challenges abound. From simply finding housing that fits the unique requirements of such families, to trying to accommodate different family members’ divergent needs, it takes a special set of skills to work with this group of clients. “The idea really is to get more people into a home without having them all be on top of each other,” says Stephen Melman of the National Association of Home Builders.

One key to ensuring a successful outcome, says Vargas, is understanding upfront the family dynamic and how interactive they want their lives to be. “You have to understand a family’s priorities and how they plan to live together from the get-go,” says Vargas. “Kitchens are often the most difficult space, especially for two women who are homemakers. Even though they are in the same family, they may not be willing to share a kitchen.”

The best way to uncover these answers, says Vargas, is to try to meet in a group with as many of the family members as possible. This allows you to get everybody’s input at the start of the process and limits the likelihood of surprise relatives coming in at the last minute making new, unexpected demands. These group meetings also help Vargas determine who the key decision-makers are in the family, something that is not always obvious. “You really have to make an effort to acknowledge and include everyone in these meetings,” he says. “Sometimes teenagers can make a big deal in the decision-making process even though they are not putting in any money.”

Finding a house that fits a family’s unique requirements is easier for Vargas than for many REALTORS^® around the country. Because of the large concentration of Hispanic and Asian immigrants in the borough of Queens, builders have designed homes in the area specifically tailored to multigenerational families.