First of all, there’s housing affordability, or rather, lack thereof.
Rents continue to rise nationwide, growing 7.5% year-over-year in June 2021, according to CoreLogic. The Financial Times highlights that home prices in the 20 biggest U.S. cities are growing at twice that rate, at 15% year-over-year.
The second force is the rise of multi-generational living. A recent New York Times article suggests that the trend of multiple generations of families living together has become increasingly common due to the pandemic (though this trend has been in the works for years).
But it’s not just families choosing to buy bigger homes for their parents, children, and grandparents to live under the same roof. The final driver of ADUs is the recent economic downturn brought upon by the pandemic. A recent Pew Research study finds that the majority (52%) of young American adults aged 18-29 are living with their parents.
Older Americans are also now more likely to live with their grown children instead of on their own, or in a care facility. The costs associated with having a place of their own or being in residential care are increasingly insurmountable for the older generation.