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Many American houses aren't built to hold three generations. HouseCanary ranks the best and worst states for multigenerational living
Michael Tuszynski / Unsplash
More families are sharing a home across generations than they were a decade ago. Grandparents move in to help with child care. Adult children stay home longer to save for a place of their own. Aging parents need somewhere safe to land when living alone stops working. Each of these situations asks the same basic question of a house. Does it have room for everyone, and can the household afford the space it needs without stretching every paycheck to the breaking point.
The answer depends on how a state's homes were built, not just how much they cost. A four-bedroom house solves a lot of problems that a three-bedroom house can't, and a finished basement can add a bedroom, a living area, or a small apartment without the cost of an addition. Nationally, though, those features remain scarce. Fewer than one in four homes nationwide has four or more bedrooms, and fewer than one in three includes a basement at all. Where a family lands within that mix can mean the difference between converting existing space and paying a steep premium to buy a bigger house outright.
