Rachel Cohen

According to ApartmentList, about 60% of homes in the U.S.

now have at least one spare bedroom.

the opportunity is particularly notable among empty-nest households.

Zillow reports roughly 21 million such homes where older residents living with no children have at least two extra bedrooms.

And with baby boomers retiring and birth rates declining, census data projects that by 2030, adults over 65 will outnumber children under 18 for the first time in U.S.

history.

With a nationwide housing shortage and developers having largely abandoned building new entry-level homes, the idea of unlocking millions of unused bedrooms through intergenerational home sharing is gaining traction.

Between 2017 and 2022, the number of families sharing living spaces with non-relatives increased by more than 500,000, suggesting growing acceptance of the practice.

But the benefits can extend beyond just aiding young renters or seniors on fixed incomes.

Advocates see intergenerational living as a powerful tool against social isolation.

Studies examining the outcomes of such households are limited, but existing research finds that seniors often report feeling more connected and in better health than those living alone.

For younger residents, particularly students from disadvantaged backgrounds, research suggests that their academic performance improves when living in mixed-age communities.

I've seen situations where an 18-year-old kid is good friends with the 73-year-old retired Marine Corps sergeant, and you never would have predicted that, but they've lived together for five to six years, said Atticus LeBlanc, the CEO of PadSplit, another company founded to facilitate home-sharing arrangements.

Many home-sharing programs now actively encourage these cross-generational connections.

It's really a win-win for everyone, said Marcy Alboer, a leader with Cogenerate, a nonprofit focused on bridging age differences.

It's not just one generation showing up to serve and rescue another.

Reviving an Older Idea

While multigenerational living among relatives has long offered a way for families to share resources and manage caregiving, intentional home-sharing between unrelated people traces its modern American roots to Philadelphia in the early 1970s.

That's when Maggie Kuhn, forced to retire at age 65 from a job she loved at the Presbyterian Church, founded the Gray Panthers.

The organization advocated for Social Security, Medicare, and against workplace age discrimination, and grew into a movement with 100,000 members across 30 states within its first decade.