The Evolving American Household: Growth in Multi-generational Living #realestate #homeownership

Source:  Zillow

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 multi-generational 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 multi-generational households.

- Metros with the highest proportions of multi-generational households also tend to have larger shares of residents that work in agriculture.

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

- Multi-generational households have higher combined incomes than smaller households, but have lower incomes per capita.

- Asian multi-generational households are more likely to be headed by a member of the "middle" generation--an adult with dependent parents and children.

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