Why multigenerational buyers are flooding the market and what it means for your pipeline
Nearly 4 million American households now span three or more generations under one roof, and a new report from Realtor.com suggests the market built around them is unlike anything else in residential real estate.
The Realtor.com Multigenerational Housing Report found that homes marketed with features like in-law suites, guest houses, and granny flats carried a median list price of $709,000 in 2025. That's roughly 65% above the $429,900 median for a standard listing.
Even adjusted for size, multigenerational homes asked $262 per square foot compared to $215 for standard homes, a 22% per-square-foot premium driven by specialized layouts, secondary kitchens, and dual entries.
What makes the data striking is that elevated prices did not dampen interest. Multigenerational listings received 13.5% more page views than standard homes and sold in the same median timeframe of 59 days, suggesting that demand is keeping pace with the premium.
A rare product in high-demand markets
Western metros account for roughly 14% of multigenerational listings nationwide, compared to 6.1% in the South, 5.3% in the Northeast, and just 2.9% in the Midwest.
All five of the top metros by listing share are in California — Los Angeles (23.7%), San Diego (22.7%), San Jose (18.0%), San Francisco (17.4%), and Riverside (14.9%) — where cultural tradition and a deep existing stock of adapted homes have made extended-family living a mainstream arrangement.
In those markets, price premiums over standard listings are relatively modest: 1.6% in Los Angeles, 8.4% in San Francisco.
The calculus is different in constrained markets. Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo each sit among the lowest metros for multigenerational listing share — 2.0%, 3.1%, and 2.5%, respectively — yet when a multigenerational home does surface, the market responds sharply.
Asking-price premiums over standard listings reach 120% in Detroit, 107% in Cleveland, and 94% in Buffalo. Detroit multigenerational listings attract 82% more page views than standard homes; Cleveland trails at 78%.
"In markets like Detroit and Cleveland, multigenerational homes are a rare find, and when one hits the market, buyers respond," said Hannah Jones, senior economic research analyst at Realtor.com.
"The strong demand and steep premiums we are seeing in inventory-constrained markets point to a real mismatch between what buyers are looking for and what is actually available. For sellers in these markets, this type of home can be a significant asset."
A decade of quiet growth
The share of multigenerational owner-occupied households edged up from 4.3% in 2019 to 4.5% in 2024, a modest headline figure that obscures a more telling shift in raw numbers.
Between 2014 and 2024, the count of multigenerational households grew from 3.2 million to 3.9 million.
"A sign that multigenerational living is becoming an increasingly common choice for American families as high housing and childcare costs create strong reasons for co-living," said Jiayi Xu, an economist at Realtor.com
The typical multigenerational household comprises five people sharing a four-bedroom home with a median annual household income of $131,000.
Demographically, 44.9% of owner-occupied multigenerational households are White, 25.8% Hispanic, 13.5% Black, and 11.1% Asian.
Among the 100 largest metros, Urban Honolulu leads with 12.1% of households in multigenerational arrangements, followed by Riverside (10.9%), Stockton (10.1%), McAllen (10.1%), and Bakersfield (8.8%).
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