Brooklyn Townhouses Attract Multi-Generational Families from Atlanta as Housing Needs Shift

Written by:

Rudi Davis

Date:

21 Feb 2026

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Brooklyn’s townhouse market is seeing a noticeable change in who is buying and how they use these properties. Townhouses, once marketed mainly as single-family homes, are now increasingly bought to house multiple generations of the same family. Tali Berzak, a Compass realtor working in Bedford-Stuyvesant and nearby neighborhoods, says this shift reflects how families are adapting to New York City’s high housing costs by combining resources and sharing space.

“We’re seeing parents whose children move to New York City from other places, like a lot from Atlanta,” Berzak says. “We have four different sets of people looking from Atlanta.” According to Berzak, these parents are buying Brooklyn townhouses to help their adult children live in the city. Since many young adults cannot afford market-rate properties alone, families are turning to shared homeownership for a practical solution.

The Two-Household Solution

Berzak describes a common arrangement: parents buy a townhouse and occupy the garden-level apartment, while their adult children live on the upper floors. “They will use the lower-level garden apartment as a pied-à-terre for themselves,” she says. “The kids, one or two, will live on the upper floors.”

This arrangement lets both generations maintain independence while living near each other. Parents secure housing in New York, and children secure affordable housing in a competitive market. “These townhouses give them a way to do that while living in the same building,” Berzak says. For many families, this addresses a significant affordability gap. Parents are stepping in to help adult children who cannot buy on their own.

This approach departs from the traditional view of Brooklyn townhouses as single-family homes. Buyers are now treating these properties as flexible platforms that can support multiple generations with varying financial needs.

The Pre-Family Buyer Segment

Multi-generational buyers are not the only group rethinking how to use townhouse space. Berzak also sees younger buyers, often newly coupled or recently married, purchasing homes much larger than their immediate needs require. “We’re seeing a lot of buyers who have recently coupled or just got married, and they don’t have any children, and they’re thinking about the future,” she says.

These buyers aim to minimize the number of moves as their families grow. “They’re asking, how many times do I really want to move in New York City?” Berzak explains. Many have already moved frequently as renters and want to avoid repeating the cycle of selling and buying multiple times.

To solve this, they buy townhouses with more bedrooms than they currently need, planning to either grow into the space or generate rental income along the way. “If I buy a townhouse, I can either grow into the space, or I will have rental income,” Berzak says. High interest rates make renting out part of the home a way to offset mortgage costs. This makes townhouses in neighborhoods such as Bed-Stuy or Clinton Hill more appealing than smaller apartments in established areas.

The Bedroom Count Shift

Demand for larger homes has accelerated since 2020, driven by the rise of remote work and new space requirements. “Since 2020, we’ve all come to this need for an office,” Berzak notes. Buyers who once sought one or two bedrooms now expect an additional room for work or future family needs. “A buyer who used to be a two-bedroom buyer, or a one-bedroom buyer, even now, needs a two-bedroom. Or I would see a two-bedroom buyer, which is someone that foresees themselves having children soon, or is thinking about children, they became three-bedroom buyers.”

Inventory has not kept up with these new preferences. “If you look at the three-bedroom inventory, there just isn’t a tremendous amount of three-bedroom inventory,” she says, referring to the 2020 market. Most townhouses are configured as three-bedroom duplexes over a garden rental or as triplexes, but buyers seeking more flexible or larger spaces have limited options.

This mismatch has pushed more buyers toward townhouses that can meet both current and future space needs. “You have the option to grow into the space,” Berzak explains. “The pool of buyers that we see today is a buyer that’s being really thoughtful about their future.”

The Trade-Off Calculation

Buyers are increasingly open to neighborhoods they might have overlooked in the past if the property offers the right mix of space, flexibility, and rental income. “I’m willing to go over to Bed Stuy to get my house where I can grow into it, and I have rental income,” Berzak says, describing the mindset.

This willingness to prioritize function over location means townhouses in emerging neighborhoods are now competing with apartments in more established areas. Townhouses serve as primary residences, investment properties, and long-term family homes — making them attractive to a broader range of buyers.

The Broader Housing Solution

Berzak’s observations point to multi-generational townhouse purchases as a practical response to New York City’s affordability crisis, filling a gap that policy solutions have failed to address. By allowing parents to help their adult children find housing while keeping separate living spaces, these townhouses offer a kind of flexibility and support that traditional apartments rarely provide.

Whether this trend will spread beyond central Brooklyn depends on how other markets respond to similar affordability pressures and whether more neighborhoods adapt their housing stock to support multi-generational living. For now, Berzak says, this model is working for families who want to stay connected and make New York’s high costs more manageable.

Looking ahead, the rise of multi-generational and flexible townhouse living signals a broader shift in how New Yorkers are approaching homeownership. Buyers now focus less on traditional definitions of family housing. They seek properties that accommodate evolving needs, generate rental income, and provide long-term stability. As affordability remains a challenge, creative solutions like these are likely to become even more important in shaping the city’s residential landscape.