The tight economy has more parents, grandparents and adult children living under one roof and new homebuilders are responding with flexible floor plans that can be customized to meet everyone’s needs. Some 16.7 percent of the U.S. population lived in a multigenerational household in 2009, according to “Fighting Poverty in a Tough Economy, Americans Move in with Their Relatives,” an October 2011 study by the Pew Research Center.”
The unemployed and young adults, hit hard by the recession, are fueling the movement into multigenerational households, said co-author Rakesh Kochhar, though social and cultural issues also play a role. Historically, multigenerational living was at 25 percent in 1914, he said, then declined to a low of 12 percent in 1980.
“During the great recession (2007-2009) we noticed a sharp spike in the population of those living in multigenerational households,” Kochhar said. “Since the recession began, the rate of growth of people living in these households had doubled compared to the rate that prevailed since 1980.”
These numbers have caught the attention of the home construction industry. But instead of marketing multigenerational floor plans, homebuilders are offering flexible designs, which give buyers options to easily repurpose space to accommodate changing family needs.
Options include adjacent bedrooms that can be converted into an in-law suite, basement rooms with closets, dining rooms that can serve as dens, alcoves separating living areas, kitchenettes in a separate wing of the house, and dens and home offices that can accommodate an adult child moving back in after college.
The key to multigenerational design is to create flexible floor plans without making them “so specified that when it comes to resale potential buyers look at it as a-typical,” said Paul Davey an architect and partner with Bethesda-based Studio Z Design Concepts, which designs residential plans for builders and buyers.
For example, Retreats — detached cottages that could be an option for aging parents — are being offered by Sandy Spring custom homebuilders and architect Russell Versaci. Most are less than 600-square-feet, can be built within 90 days, and delivered to a backyard. For resale, they could be repurposed for use as a guest suite, pool house or extra office.
Sandy Spring also offers buyers an elevator rough-in, created by stacking closets on each floor. If buyers choose not to install an elevator right away “we just make it into closets,” said Phil Leibovitz, Sandy Spring’s chief executive officer.
Leibovitz said the flexible floor plan trend began almost 10 years ago. The “bonus room” that emerged in the late 1990s could be turned into a bedroom or upstairs art studio. Depending on the buyer, this room can be sold as space for an au pair or in-laws.
“We often build rooms, such as a rear study with a powder room nearby. We put a shower in the powder room and you can convert that study into a bedroom. It’s easy to do,” Leibovitz said.
