Until you spot the second door.

From the home’s porch, visitors have the choice of entering into the main home or a side door that leads to a 500-square-foot suite. The suite, which has all the amenities of a second private residence, is the latest – and most emphatic – attempt by a Triangle homebuilder to appeal to a growing demographic of buyers: those with multiple generations of family members living under one roof.

Lennar calls this its “Next Gen” house. The Miami-based builder is now offering the model at subdivisions in Apex and Clayton after having success selling it in western states such as California, Arizona and Texas.

“We market it as two homes, one payment,” says Trish Hanchette, Lennar’s Raleigh division president.

The idea of designing a home to appeal to a larger, multi-generational family is not a new one. But in the past the plans were designed more to appeal to buyers from cultures where having multiple generations living together was expected.

The market for such homes has expanded in recent years as economic factors and demographic shifts have reshaped the nuclear family and altered its housing needs.

The severity and length of the economic downturn has created a need for what the housing industry calls “bounce back” rooms, meaning space for a grown child struggling to make it on their own.

“The number of 22- to 30-year-olds that are still living at home is at a record high right now,” said Hampton Pitts, an executive vice president with Ashton Woods Homes, an Atlanta-based builder that is active in eight Triangle communities.

“So you have that college graduate that’s back at home looking for a job and maybe got their first job but not ready to be in an ownership or rent situation.”

Meanwhile, the country’s baby boomer generation is entering old age – and living longer – just as the cost of health care is skyrocketing.

“Assisted living is very expensive and it cuts into any savings that folks have,” Hanchette said.

That Lennar has decided to offer its Next Gen model in the Triangle is a sign the homebuilder doesn’t believe the move toward multi-generational housing will slow once the economy picks up. The region is an attractive place for the product in part because it is appealing to retirees – in many cases, a young family will move to the Triangle and be followed several years later by parents eager to be close to grandchildren.

Terri Aves, a real estate agent with Allen Tate in Cary, recently represented a buyer who bought a new home in Bella Casa, though not a Next Gen model. The owners moved here from the Northeast and specifically wanted a plan that had a first floor guest room which could be used when their aging parents came to visit.

“Over the years I’ve had a few clients but I’m seeing it increase,” Aves said of such requests.

High-end trend

Like most housing trends, the move to more multi-generational floor plans started at the very the upper end of the market.

“In the higher-end homes, probably starting ... four years or maybe five years ago you really improved your ability to sell that home with a first-floor bedroom,” said Rich Van Tassel of the Raleigh-based Royal Oaks Building Group. “ ... Now every home we build that’s over $500,000 is going to have a first-floor bedroom and full bath, in addition to a study.”

Royal Oaks went so far as to offer some models with two master suites – one downstairs and one upstairs – but Van Tassel said they didn’t sell well.

Now the company focuses on offering space that can be used in multiple ways – as a nursery, an extra bedroom or a home office.

Ashton Woods has also woven a flexible first-floor space into its floor plans to appeal to buyers who are expecting to eventually have long-term guests.

“The flexibility in our architecture to create secondary suites for those situations is really important to have,” Pitts said.

At the company’s Leesville Crest community in North Raleigh, Ashton Woods is offering a new 4,880-square-foot model with a guest suite that comes with a kitchen, family room and bathroom. Other plans feature a separate one-car garage with an entry off that into a private suite.

Lennar is hoping to distinguish itself from the competition with Next Gen.

“This expands it, in that there’s a lot more privacy involved in the space,” Hanchette said.

Common areas

The Next Gen model in Bella Cassa contains about 3,700 square feet and sells for $414,000. (Other Lennar models offered within the subdivision range from $250,000 to $375,000.)

The common areas in the main house of the Next Gen model are larger than they would typically be to accommodate extra people. In addition to the second entrance, there’s also a door inside linking the main house to the attached suite.

Since Lennar unveiled the model in October, it has made one pre-sale and is building two others on spec.

Billie Block, a sales associate with Block & Associates, represented the pre-sale buyer.

The family knew they were going to have a parent come and live with them, and the other models available didn’t quite have the convenience and privacy that the parent wanted.

“We were really struggling to find something,” Block said

Hanchette said Lennar doesn’t expect to build entire communities of Next Gen homes, but rather to have them mixed in with more traditional plans. As for how large the buyer pool is for such a house, Block said the jury is still out.

“It’s so early that I think it’s going to be really hard to tell at this point,” she said. “But honestly, I think it’s a product whose time is here.”