Who Actually Buys a Multigenerational Home? The Many Faces of One Big Household
Quick answer: Multigenerational homebuyers fall into roughly six groups — families caring for an aging parent, households with adult children at home, the sandwich generation caring in both directions, culturally-rooted families, cost-driven buyers, and specialty cases like veterans — and they now make up 17% of all U.S. home purchases, an all-time high.
Multigenerational buyers are not one type of family. They are a dozen. If any of these situations sounds like yours, you are far from alone — and the national data proves it.
When people picture a multigenerational homebuyer, they often imagine one narrow scenario — usually an adult child moving an elderly parent in. The reality is much wider. Multigenerational buyers span generations, motivations, and life circumstances, and what unites them is simply this: more than one generation, sharing one roof, by plan.
And it is no longer a niche. According to the National Association of REALTORS®, multigenerational buying recently hit an all-time high, with 17% of all homes purchased in a single year being multigenerational households. If you are weighing this decision, you are part of a fast-growing group — not an outlier.
Below, we walk through the many kinds of families who buy multigenerational homes. As you read, you may recognize your own situation in one — or several — of them.
There is no single profile of a multigenerational buyer. There is only a wide range of families who all arrived at the same answer: together.
What the national numbers tell us
Before the individual stories, the big picture. NAR’s research shows multigenerational buying is rising across nearly every generation, and the reasons have shifted meaningfully over the past decade:
Source: National Association of REALTORS®, “One Big Happy Household” (Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers; 2025 Generational Trends).
Families centered on an aging parent
This is the largest and fastest-growing group, and the one with the most urgency behind it. The NAR data shows that among older millennial multigen buyers, 35% bought because of health and caretaking responsibilities for aging parents, and 32% bought simply to spend more time with them.
Within this group, families arrive from many directions:
Adult children buying so a parent can move in. The most common path — bringing a parent into a home with a suite, a separate entrance, or a ground-floor bedroom.
Parents buying to move closer to — or in with — their adult children. Sometimes the older generation drives the move, wanting proximity and support as they age.
Families responding to a recent diagnosis or hospitalization. A health event can turn “someday” into “now.” These buyers move quickly and need the right home fast.
Families planning ahead of a crisis. The wisest version — setting up the home before it is urgently needed.
Caregiving for a parent with dementia, Parkinson’s, or a progressive illness — or supporting a parent who needs assisted-living-level care, but at home. These families need specific layouts, and often, specific timing.
Households built around adult children
The other major driver runs the opposite direction — generations staying together at the younger end. NAR found that 21% of buyers cited adult children moving back home as a reason (up from 11% in 2015), and 20% cited adult children who never left (up from just 7%).
The “boomerang” generation — adult children moving back home after college, a job change, or a life transition.
Adult children who never left, now planning to stay long-term as part of the household.
Recent graduates carrying student loan debt, for whom staying home is a financial strategy, not a setback.
Young families saving for their own down payment, using a shared home as a launchpad.
Adult children with disabilities who remain in the family home, where a thoughtfully chosen property makes long-term care sustainable.
The sandwich generation — caring in both directions
Some buyers are supporting an aging parent and raising children at the same time. The data reflects how real this is: Gen X buyers, often called the sandwich generation, jumped from 12% of multigen buyers in 2013 to 21% today — and 42% of Gen X multigen buyers have children under 18 living at home.
Middle-aged buyers caring for aging parents and minor children at once, needing a home that genuinely works for three generations.
Single parents bringing in their own parents to help with childcare while everyone shares the cost of one home.
Families combining households after a divorce, a death, or a financial setback, where pooling resources is both practical and stabilizing.
Families who live together by culture or by choice
For many families, multigenerational living is not a response to a crisis — it is simply how they prefer to live, and often how they have always lived.
Families from cultures where multigenerational living is the norm — including many Hispanic, Asian, Caribbean, Indian, and Middle Eastern families for whom extended-family households are expected and valued.
Religious and faith-centered families who prioritize keeping extended family close.
Families who simply prefer it — choosing closeness, shared meals, and built-in support not out of necessity, but because it is the life they want.
Buyers driven by the financial math
Cost is now the single most-cited reason families buy multigenerational, named by 36% of buyers — more than double the share a decade ago. When you do the math, it is easy to see why.
Cost-sharing on a single mortgage, spreading the monthly payment across more than one earner.
Pooling down payments across two households, reaching a price point neither could manage alone.
Sharing childcare and eldercare informally, reducing costs that would otherwise be paid to outside providers.
Retirement relocators who move to be near adult children — combining lifestyle and proximity in one decision.
Specialty situations that need a specialist
Some multigenerational purchases carry an extra layer of complexity — and these are exactly the buyers who benefit most from working with someone who does this every day.
Veterans using VA benefits toward a multigenerational purchase.
Families selling an existing home and buying a multigen home simultaneously, coordinating two transactions on one timeline.
Buyers with accessibility needs — wheelchair access, a ground-floor primary suite, or ADA-compliant features — where the right layout is not optional but essential.
If one of these is you, here is what matters next
Whichever group you recognized yourself in, the next step is the same: a home that fits your specific configuration. A sandwich-generation family and a veteran buyer and a family responding to a diagnosis all need different things — and that is precisely why a one-size-fits-all agent rarely serves multigen buyers well.
Your timeline shapes everything
Crisis-driven buyers and plan-ahead buyers need very different strategies. Knowing which you are is the first step.
The layout is the whole point
Suites, separate entrances, dual primary bedrooms, ground-floor access — the configuration is what makes multigen living work.
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
Who buys multigenerational homes the most?
What percentage of homebuyers are multigenerational?
Why do families buy multigenerational homes?
What is the most important feature in a multigenerational home?
Recognized your family in one of these? Whatever brought you here — a parent’s health, a boomerang kid, or simply the math — we help families like yours find the right home. No pressure, no timeline.