Another Arizona innovation: The multigenerational house

Multigenerational housing is drawing more metro Phoenix homebuyers as parents and kids move back in together.

Edward and Christine Leydon weren’t looking for a new home. The couple and their three children were happy in the Gilbert house they bought in 2009.

But the Leydons had been thinking about where their 16-year-old son with special needs would live after he graduated from high school. They want him to have more space and independence while still being close to them.

Then last summer, they found a new home built with an apartment tucked inside. The multigenerational house, from Lennar, is just five minutes from where they live now. So their son Jordan’s commute to Higley High School will be the same.

“We wanted to plan ahead, knowing Jordan may live with us forever,” Christine Leydon told me. “He is so excited to have his own space, but still just be a door away from us.”

The Leydons' new house is under construction. They plan to move in early next year.

The home is called the NextGen model.  It will have an attached apartment with about 750 square feet of space. The apartment has its own outside entrance, as well as a door to the rest of the home. A kitchenette, bedroom, bathroom, living space and laundry area are included. The apartment even has its own garage and backyard.

The Arizona division of homebuilder Lennar launched its NextGen home a few years ago for multigenerational homebuyers. Now the home-plus-apartment design is so popular, it's for sale in Lennar communities nationwide.

Arizona Lennar President Alan Jones told me about one-third of the builder’s home sales across the state are NextGen designs.

The multigenerational house is also another example of how metro Phoenix has long been a proving ground for new home designs.

Among other Arizona innovations:

• Del E. Webb launched the nation’s first large, affordable retirement community, Sun City, in the West Valley more than six decades ago.
• In 1960, John F. Long opened Maryvale, one of the first affordable communities in the desert offering homes with air-conditioners. 
• Developer Lyle Anderson created some of the first upscale, desert golf-course communities with Desert Highland and Desert Mountain in Scottsdale during the 1980s and '90s.
•  And there’s no denying that the red-tile roof, stucco homes built in Ahwatukee Foothills and other parts of the Valley during the 1990s shaped new home styles across the West. 

“Phoenix regularly sets housing trends for the rest of the country,” said Arizona homebuilding analyst RL Brown, who publishes the Phoenix Housing Market Report.  “It started with Del Webb and continues with Lennar’s NextGen and Meritage’s energy-efficient homes.”

In 2011, Scottsdale-based Meritage was the first big homebuilder to offer affordable net-zero homes. These houses use solar and other green building methods to generate more power than they use in a year.

Building for baby boomers was the big mantra for homebuilders a decade ago. Many have recently been trying to draw Millennials buyers. Both groups are interested in solar.

But multigenerational housing is the new buzz.

Analysis of census data from the Pew Research Center shows a record 57 million people live in multigenerational households. The trend grew during the recession when families, who lost jobs and homes, moved in together.

A growing number of baby boomers are living with their parents and grown children.

Lennar’s stats say 1 in 6 people in the U.S. already live in multigenerational homes.

Families are saving money by sharing a mortgage and cutting expenses on both assisted-living care and babysitting.

Arizona Lennar executives said one of their NextGen buyers is a father who moved into the apartment so his two daughters and their children could live in the main house.

Another house was sold to a couple who has their college-age grandson living with them in the apartment.

Prices for Lennar’s multigenerational homes in the Valley start in $250,000s. Pretty affordable, particularly when the mortgage can be shared.

Jordan Leydon is selling some books and old games to buy new furniture for his apartment.

“Many people might think these homes offer these apartment only for elderly parents,” Christine Leydon said. “But you have to think outside the box.”

She has already talked to three other families who have children with special needs who are buying the homes, too.

“Jordan can be independent, but we can still be close if he need us,” she said. “What more could a parent want?”