North American homes will increasingly house multi-generational families as affordability wanes and cultural attitudes and demographics shift.
Speakers at the Urban Development Institute Alberta conference this week in Edmonton said homes filled with grandparents and adult children and their kids will be more commonplace.
"We're heading back to the Waltons," said Jonathan David Miller, a New York-based realestate analyst.
"We're going to see more of that and we're going to see people living more in smaller places."
Miller said the new North American economy is shedding highly paid manufacturing jobs and creating new ones in lowerpaid sectors such as retail and temporary services and North Americans are carrying more personal debt.
"It's not going to be as vigorous and consumer-led as it was. It can't be and that has to affect real estate."
Urban planner Simon O'Byrne of Edmonton said the demographics of home consumers are changing rapidly as the population ages and its cultural makeup shifts.
Most immigration is disproportionately coming from the Philippines, China and India, O'Byrne said.
"They come to Canada with much more traditional values . . . and a very strong connection with family. It means that they cohabit together, which means multi-generational housing," he said.
"Multi-generational housing is going to be a big trend coming forward because the population is shifting so much more toward growth dependent on immigration. This is common practice for most of humanity.
"But to do this, we need flexible housing options. We need looser land-use regulations that provide for this."
There are already changes signalling more density for singlefamily homes.
O'Byrne said about 600,000 to 700,000 homes in Canada are multi-generational already. "Child care costs is a big component and wanting people to go into mortgages together."
Changing demographics are also affecting Edmonton's realestate market.
One of the fast-growing Edmonton housing markets is the southeast such the Meadows and Walker, where Indo-Canadians are settling, O'Byrne said. It's also busy because relatives often band together to buy a home.
"People want to be able to buy a lot and build their own home because home builders aren't building the homes that these people want. Because if you're a Sikh person, you're expected to provide food for your congregation in your temple every three or four months."
Generation Y, or millennials, those aged 16-29, a "mollycoddled generation" are expected to live at home into their adulthood longer than previous generations, O'Byrne said.
Because previous generations have taken the highest-paying jobs and have delayed marrying, they also can't afford to own homes on a single income.
"Their parents treated them growing up as their best friends, so they stay at home longer."
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