Lennar’s revolutionary concept for The Home Within A Home® – began in our Arizona Division, with our first communities of multigenerational homes opening throughout the Phoenix area in 2011. Today, there are several locations in both the Phoenix and Tucson areas where families are discovering the advantages of Lennar’s The Home Within a Home, as highlighted in this new article from The Arizona Republic.
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 The Home Within a Home 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 The Home Within a 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.
The multigenerational house is also another example of how metro Phoenix has long been a proving ground for new home designs.
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.
