Against the backdrop of long-term affordability issues in housing and the disruptions of the pandemic, more and more families are adapting by simply living together. Multigenerational households, where three or more generations share the same home, have become increasingly common over the last decade as people seek ways to save money and live closer.
With the acceleration of this trend, a new study is identifying the best and worst cities for this sort of living arrangement, based on income, availability and space, among other factors. Cities were ranked with an overall score based on all these factors and broken down for suitability due to housing and on economic conditions.
Key takeaways:
In overall rankings, there were cities in every region that were highly conducive to multi-generational living—though the Midwest dominated the list with nine out of the top 20 metros. Texas had the most of any one state with three cities ranked (San Antonio, Houston and Dallas), while California had none. Philadelphia took the crown as the overall best city for multigenerational households, while also being the only Northeast city on the list.
Conversely, California and the West dominated the list of worst cities for multigenerational living. Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose and San Diego, all made the top 10, with San Francisco taking the dubious honor as the worst place in the country for multi-generational living.
In terms of economic factors, Philadelphia stood out both due its relative affordability (22.20% cost-income-ratio for multigenerational households) and availability of multi-bedrooms housing units (3,458 listings with more than three bedrooms at the time of the study). On the other hand, San Francisco had a 42.24% cost-to-income ratio and only 504 listings with more than three bedrooms.
The study found a few other cities with outlying trends for multigenerational living. While California was a bad place for those households, California cities had a disproportionate number of multigenerational living arrangements per capita (Riverside with the most and Los Angeles with the third-most). Two cities had more than a fifth of multigenerational households living under the poverty line (Louisville, Kentucky at 21.3% and Buffalo, New York at 20.8%).
Only three cities saw the unemployment rate for multigenerational households fall below the national average for all households. Those cities were Salt Lake City, Utah (3.2%); Birmingham, Alabama (3.4%) and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (3.7%).
To view the full report, click here.
Jesse Williams is an associate online editor at RISMedia. Email him with your real estate news ideas to jwilliams@rismedia.com.
