For decades, retirement followed a familiar housing script: sell the family home, downsize, and simplify. While many baby boomers still choose to remain in place or move into smaller homes, a growing subset is taking a different path. Instead of downsizing, they are purchasing larger homes.
“Traditionally, it was, you retire from your job, and you immediately sold your family house because your kids were gone, and you moved down to a three- or four-bedroom house on a golf course in Florida. And that narrative doesn’t necessarily suit today’s retirees,” says Peter Dennehy, principal, home building with Zonda and expert on 55-plus housing.
This trend isn’t entirely new. A 2015 Merrill Lynch and Age Wave report, Home in Retirement: More Freedom, New Choices, found that 30% of recent retirees had moved to a larger home, while another 19% relocated to a home of similar size.
Years later, attitudes toward retirement continue to reflect that shift. Age Wave’s 2023 study, The New Age of Aging, found that 71% of adults aged 65 and older believe the best years of their lives are either happening now or still ahead of them. Rather than viewing retirement as a period of scaling back, many older adults increasingly see it as an opportunity to shape the next phase of life on their own terms.
A combination of factors is reshaping retirement housing decisions. Strong home equity positions, changing expectations for retirement, a desire to live near children and grandchildren, and the rise in multigenerational living are leading some boomers to seek homes with greater flexibility.
“It’s obviously a trend for people that have the resources to upsize rather than downsize. And I think it’s important to always say today’s retirees really come in all flavors,” Dennehy says. “I don’t know that we want to emphasize that every boomer or every retiring person has all the cash in the world to do that. But a lot of people do because they have benefited from home equity buildup over the last five or six years. Since the pandemic, they’ve saved up their money.”
The data reflects the strong financial position many older homeowners occupy today:
- The U.S. homeownership rate was 65% in the second quarter of 2026 per the Census Bureau’s Housing Vacancy Survey. Among adults aged 55 to 64 and those aged 65 and older, it was 75.1% and 78.6%, respectively.
- Federal Reserve data shows that Americans aged 55 to 69 held 41.2% of U.S. household wealth in the first quarter of 2026, while adults aged 70 and older controlled another 32.7%.
For many of these homeowners, housing decisions are often driven by choice rather than necessity. Dennehy describes them as discretionary buyers, selecting homes based on how they want to live in retirement rather than remaining in place simply because of a favorable mortgage rate.
For them, retirement can be an opportunity to purchase a home better aligned with their current lifestyle and future plans.
The Family Dynamics Driving Upsizing
While financial resources may make a move possible, family is often a key motivator.
Dennehy says many boomers remain deeply involved in the lives of their children and grandchildren. Zonda surveys show that roughly one-quarter of boomers plan to retire near their children or grandchildren, a trend monitored through the company’s Baby Chaser Index.
Moving closer to family can shape both where retirees live and the type of home they choose. Rather than seeking the smallest home possible, many buyers want space that can accommodate visiting relatives, overnight guests, and changing family dynamics.
In some cases, those evolving family needs extend beyond occasional visits. Multigenerational living has become increasingly common in recent years. According to Generations United, a national nonprofit and leading authority on multigenerational living, 26% of Americans lived in a multigenerational household in 2021, up from 7% in 2011.
Kristen Kiefer, executive director of Generations United, says that trend is reshaping housing decisions for many older adults.
“For many older adults, the decision is no longer simply about downsizing or remaining in the family home,” Kiefer says. “It is increasingly about choosing housing that can adapt to changing needs, relationships, and responsibilities across generations.”
Kiefer says Generation United’s Healthier Lives Across Generations: A Blueprint for Intergenerational Living found that families increasingly prioritize homes that are safe, accessible, affordable, and connected to community resources and support networks.
Those needs can take many forms. Some retirees want space for adult children facing housing affordability challenges, while others are planning for grandchildren, aging relatives, or future caregiving responsibilities. Others are looking for ways to live closer to family without necessarily sharing the same household.
Designing for Flexibility Across Lifestages
For many boomers, the goal is not simply more square footage: it’s flexibility. Dennehy says many boomers who move are looking for homes that support aging in place while accommodating family and lifestyle priorities.
Kiefer adds that the most successful homes balance togetherness with independence, allowing family members to remain connected while maintaining privacy and autonomy.
Important features for both aging-in-place and balancing connection with independence include:
- First-floor bedrooms and bathrooms
- Flexible rooms that can serve different purposes over time
- Separate or semi-private living areas
- Accessory dwelling units, connected suites, or separate entrances
- Adaptable bathrooms and accessible entrances
- Generous storage space
- Gathering areas that accommodate different ages and abilities
Floor Plan Preferences Reflect Changing Priorities
A demand for flexibility is increasingly visible in the floor plans buyers are choosing.
Data from Houseplans.com, an online marketplace for professionally pre-drawn architectural blueprints, floor plans, and home designs, illustrates the shift.
According to Houseplans.com:
- Accessibility/aging-in-place plans grew from 10.3% of plans sold in 2019 to 20.5% in 2026 year to date (YTD).
- Multigenerational plans rose from 4% to 12.2% over the same period.
Demand for specific features has also increased:
- First-floor primary suites rose from 58.6% of plans sold in 2019 to 68.4% in 2026 YTD.
- Main-floor bed-and-bath layouts increased from 39.7% in 2019 to 54.9% in 2026 YTD.
- Guest suites nearly tripled from 3.9% in 2019 to 11% in 2026 YTD.
These trends do not mean most retirees are abandoning downsizing. Rather, they highlight how housing needs are evolving later in life. For some boomers, retirement is less about reducing space and more about creating a home that reflects how they want to live today while providing the flexibility to adapt to whatever comes next.
This article was originally published on NewHomeSource.com.
