Rising Housing Costs Drive Multi-Generational Living in America

May 5, 2026Updated May 7, 2026, 5:46 p.m. ET

Earlier this year, Pearl Emmons, a real estate agent in the Boston area, helped former clients buy a new home. The couple, grandparents in their 70s, had decided they wanted to move closer to their daughter and her growing family.

Much closer.

The two couples wound up buying a two-family home together in Somerville, Massachusetts. Grandma and Grandpa live on the first floor, and their daughter, son-in-law and two youngsters reside on the top level.

The grandparents frequently provide child care for the young ones, Emmons said, and living so close by makes those interactions much easier. In addition, she said, “I think that for anybody with aging parents, it’s nice to be able to be close to them for support reasons.”

As the cost of living – and housing – surges, Americans are increasingly opting to live with other generations of their family. As Emmons’ clients show, there’s a caregiver convenience factor at work. It also stands to reason that cutting down on travel expenses saves money.

A recent analysis, however, finds that multigenerational homes are often significantly more expensive than standard properties. Their growing popularity in spite of that suggests the other advantages make it worth it to many families.

The report, out May 5 from Realtor.com, estimates there are 4 million multigenerational households, representing 4.5% of all owner-occupied households, as of 2024. That’s up a bit from a 4.3% share in 2019, before the pandemic.

The report defines “multigenerational houses” as properties whose descriptions include keywords such as “guest house,” “in-law suite” or “granny-flat.”

Realtor.com does not include two-family houses, like the one Emmons helped her clients buy, triplexes and other similar homes because data about those properties is not tracked uniformly. That suggests multigenerational housing might be far more widespread than the report highlights if arrangements like these are factored in.

The analysis shows the median list price for a multigenerational house on Realtor.com, was $709,000 in 2025, roughly 65% higher than the $429,900 median for a standard listing. Though multigenerational homes are typically larger, they are also more expensive at the most basic level, commanding $262 a square foot versus $215 a square foot for standard homes.

That extra cost may be because multigenerational homes contain special features like in-law suites, additional kitchens and multiple entries, the report noted. Yet even with higher price tags, multigenerational listings received 13.5% more page views than standard homes and sold in the same time frame.

In real estate, however, everything is local. Emmons says that in the small city of Somerville, where the extended family bought, two-family homes are much less expensive at the per-square foot level – so much so that she frequently advises clients that they may be an untapped bargain.

On the other hand, that may be because such properties typically have deferred maintenance and require more TLC before a family or families can move in, she added.

Any sweat equity families put in may be well worth it. As Hannah Jones, a senior analyst at Realtor.com, put it in a release, "A sense of shared purpose and care is at the heart of multigenerational living, a housing arrangement that is quietly shaping American family life."