Multigenerational households (where two or more adult generations live together or include grandparents and grandchildren) are on the rise. Create a checklist of needs vs wants while looking at homes. Draft a family agreement which addresses how the family would pay for the home and related expenses including an “exit strategy” in the event a family member moves out. For the complete article, follow our link to the New York Times.

What to Know Before Buying a Home With Your Parents

By Claire Zulkey | New York Times

For Diana Limongi, the practical benefits of sharing a two-family house in Astoria with her parents are manifest. There is access to a car without having to own one, free Spanish immersion for her two children and periodic gifts of homemade lentils left in the refrigerator.

But the best part, the nonprofit consultant and writer says, is when she leaves the house. “I hear my mom talking to my daughter and cracking up. It’s just pure joy, and it’s a beautiful sound. They’re really enjoying each others’ company.”

Multigenerational households — homes where two or more adult generations live together, or those that include both grandparents and grandchildren — are on the rise across the country. A record 64 million Americans now live in a multigenerational home, according to a Pew Research Center report, up from 32.2 million in 1950.

There are multiple reasons for this shift: the increasing cost of long-term care; the growing immigrant population, in which shared housing has always been more common; and, of course, rising housing prices. Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, said that multifamily home purchases are especially prevalent now “because home prices are so expensive that the only way to make it work is to double up or triple up.” Read entire article