10 Things to Know About Older Households' Impact on Housing

The annual State of the Nation’s Housing report found households aged 65 and up are the fastest growing age group and greatly influences both the ownership and rental markets. The annual report by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University says households aged 65 and up increased by nearly 1 million every year from 2014 to 2019. To compare, households under the age of 45 grew by 1 million alone throughout the same five years. Older households are boosting homeownership rates as well with 78.6% of the total rate of homeownership coming from older households. On the rental side, roughly two-thirds of rental housing growth from 2004 to 2019 can be attributed to adults age 55 and older.

3. The growing older population is changing the mix of household types. Aging, concerns over the costs of housing and care (of both older adults and children), and growth in Hispanic, Asian, and foreign-born households, which are more likely to include multiple generations, are all contributing to an increase in multigenerational living.

The number of two-generation households, consisting of adult children at least 25 years old and their parents, rose by nearly 1.8 million from 2014 to 2019 to reach 13.8 million—accounting for roughly one out of every three households added during that period. Meanwhile, the number of three-generation households—made up of grandparents and their adult children and grandchildren—also grew over the past five years, increasing by just under 200,000 to 4.7 million. 

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