Offshore buyers, unemployment rates hovering between 12 and 25 percent for adults aged 18-25, and an onslaught of baby boomers has caused the number of multigenerational households to explode. If you’re looking for a great niche in 2014, specializing in multigenerational housing can be an excellent choice.

According to NAR’s 2013 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers:“Fourteen percent of recent buyers purchased a home for a multigenerational household — a home that had adult siblings, adult children over the age of 18, parents, and/or grandparents in the household. One-quarter of these homes were bought because children over the age of 18 were moving back into the home and for cost savings.

One of five multigenerational households purchased this household type because of health and caretaking of aging parents, while 1 in 10 purchase this type of home to spend more time with aging parents.”The real driver: foreign-born seniors? In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Neil Shah argued that what’s really driving the trend towards multigenerational households is not low income or high joblessness, it’s the fact the number of seniors born outside the U.S. has risen from 8 percent in 1994 to 13 percent in 2013.

According to Shah: “… Foreign-born seniors are four times more likely to live with their children. Around 25 percent of foreign-born seniors in the U.S. live with relatives, compared with just 6 percent for U.S.-born seniors. … Nearly half of all U.S. seniors born in India (47 percent) were living with relatives. Vietnam (44 percent), the Philippines (38 percent), Mexico (35 percent) and China (34 percent) also posted high shares.”

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2013/12/09/multigenerational-households-an-often-overlooked-real-estate-niche-offers-agents-prime-opportunity-in-2014/?utm_source=20131209&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinesam#sthash.aZfhudbH.dpuf