Multiple homebuilders in North Texas are responding to a growing demand in the national housing market: multigenerational housing.
Lennar Homes expects to sell around 125 of its Next Gen houses this year in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The Next Gen homes feature a fully-equipped suite built into them, designed to provide a private living space for an adult family member within the confines of the larger, family home.
"It's a home within a home. A fully functional home within a home," said David Grove, the Division President for Lennar Homes in DFW.
Lennar offers nine different Next Gen plans in 16 different housing developments in 13 different municipalities in the region. They range in price from $350,000 to $600,000.
One in five Americans live in a multigenerational household, according to Pew Research Center data released last spring. That percentage is the highest recorded since the 1950s, according to Pew.
Pew defined a "multigenerational household" as one that includes two or more adult generations.
As opposed to fixing up a room in the garage as an "in-law suite," the situation provided by Lennar, and in a similar setup offered by North Texas-based homebuilder D.R. Horton, allows for everyone to live under the same roof. But it has the added advantage of giving the newest housemates a place of their own, as well.
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"And that way, too, the Mom does not feel like an imposition. It's not 'I am taking a portion of your home away from you.’ It is that we have thoughtfully and intentionally purchased a home to live the way we want them to live," Grove explained.
