The study finds that many of these families are planning to either renovate their home or buy a new one. Helen Artienda is one of them. “I’m kind of looking for a house within a house so that my son can move back home after he finish his school since the economy is not [doing] too well nowadays,” Artienda stated.

The economy is one of the main reasons why living arrangements are changing, said architecture and gerontology, professor Victor Regnier. “In 2008 a lot of things happened. People lost equity in their house. They also lost wealth, and I think that idea of imagining how a conventional housing unit can be sliced into different types of areas is something that is much more common today than it has been in the past,” he said.

The U.S. Census finds there has been an increase in the number of families with three or more generations living together in the U.S. A large share of them are Hispanics, African Americans and Asians. Yet Regnier said this trend is really driven by economics, instead of cultural norms.

“A lot of third world countries have had this kind of housing arrangement partly because they didn’t have enough income to be able to purchase additional space and so everybody lives together in a communal way,” Regnier explained.

Regnier said China and India are examples, though he says demographers expect people in these countries to live on their own as they become more affluent. But in the U.S., he said, the idea of a home within a home may be here to stay, because the extra space can serve multiple functions and add to the house's value.