Buyer Education · August 24, 2026 · 7 min read
I sat at a kitchen table in Bel Air last Tuesday with a couple in their early seventies. They'd called me because they were ready to downsize. That's what they said on the phone, anyway.
Their house was paid off. Four bedrooms, two and a half baths, quarter-acre lot. Classic Harford County ranch with a walkout basement. They rattled off all the reasons: too much to clean, yard work getting harder, rattling around in all that space.
Then the wife mentioned, almost as an afterthought, that their daughter was going through a divorce. Two grandkids, ages four and seven. Probably moving back for a while.
I put my pen down.
"So you don't actually want less space right now," I said. "You want different space."
She looked at her husband. He looked at me. Long pause.
"I guess we do."
The real estate industry has been selling the same story for twenty years. You hit your sixties, your seventies, you downsize. You move to a 55+ community. You get the condo with the nice clubhouse and someone else mows the lawn. You simplify.
And for some people? That's exactly right. I've helped plenty of Maryland seniors make that move and love every minute of it.
But I'm seeing something else happen more and more, especially across Harford County, Baltimore County, Anne Arundel County, and parts of Howard County. Seniors who don't need less house. They need more house. Or at least different house.
Not because they want to collect more stuff or host bigger parties. Because their kids are coming home. Because they're raising grandchildren. Because aging parents need care and everyone's trying to figure out how three generations fit under one roof without losing their minds.
The U.S. Census Bureau reported that multigenerational households have more than doubled since 1970, and Maryland tracks right along with that trend. I see it every week.
When a senior calls me about downsizing but the real story is multigenerational living, here's what we usually end up searching for:
Main-floor primary suite. Non-negotiable. They don't want to be climbing stairs in ten years, and they don't want to give up the primary bedroom to the younger generation just because their knees gave out.
Separate living spaces. Not necessarily a full in-law suite, though those are gold when we find them. Sometimes it's a finished basement with its own entrance. Sometimes it's a first-floor bonus room that can close off from the main living area. Privacy matters when you're sharing a mortgage and a mailing address.
Extra parking. Sounds mundane until you've got four adults and a teenager all coming and going. HOAs in some of the newer Anne Arundel County developments have parking restrictions that make multigenerational living almost impossible.
Zoning that allows it. This one surprises people. Some Maryland municipalities have occupancy limits or restrictions on accessory dwelling units that can box you in. Baltimore County zoning is generally flexible, but you need to check before you fall in love with a property.
I worked with a family in Edgewood last spring hunting for exactly this setup. Grandmother, her son, his wife, and three kids. They looked at 55+ communities first because that's what the internet told them to do. Waste of time. They ended up in a five-bedroom colonial with a walkout basement and couldn't be happier. Grandmother has the main-floor primary, her own bathroom, and a sitting room. The chaos happens upstairs and downstairs. Everyone has space to breathe.
Here's where my education background kicks in, because people need to understand the math before they make this move.
Selling a paid-off house to buy something bigger sounds backwards if you're thinking like a traditional downsizer. But if you're pooling resources with adult children, the numbers flip.
Let's say you sell your Harford County ranch for $425,000. You buy a larger home in the same area for $550,000. If your daughter and son-in-law are contributing to the down payment or splitting the mortgage, you might end up with lower monthly housing costs than if you'd bought that cute little cottage in the 55+ community for $320,000 all by yourself.
Plus, you're not paying for two households. You're not driving across town three times a week to help with the grandkids. You're not splitting time between aging parents in one house and your own life in another.
The Maryland Department of Aging has resources on multigenerational caregiving that touch on some of this, though they don't talk much about real estate. That's where a Maryland realtor who's actually paying attention comes in handy.
I don't want to sound like I'm anti-downsizing. I'm not. I'm anti-assuming.
I listed a home in Fallston two months ago for a widow in her late sixties. Her husband had passed the year before. Kids were grown and settled in their own states. She was lonely in that big house and ready to move on.
We found her a two-bedroom cottage-style home in a quiet Bel Air neighborhood. One floor, small yard, walking distance to coffee and the library. She closes next week and she's thrilled.
That's the right downsize. Because it matched what she actually needed, not what the brochures said she should want.
If you're a Maryland senior thinking about your next move, here are the questions I ask before we even look at homes for sale in Harford County or anywhere else:
Where will your kids be in three years? Not where they are now. Job markets shift. Marriages end. Grandkids arrive. I'm not saying plan for disaster, but don't plan for everything to stay frozen either.
What does your health trajectory look like? If you're active and healthy now, great. But if you're planning to age in place, does the home support that in ten or fifteen years? Doorways wide enough for a walker? Bathroom that could handle grab bars?
Do you actually hate yard work, or do you just hate your yard? I've had clients who thought they wanted no yard, then realized they just wanted a smaller, flatter, easier yard. Different problem, different solution.
What's your real budget when you factor in family help? Don't assume you're buying solo if that's not the reality. And don't let pride keep you from having honest money conversations with adult children who might benefit as much as you do from a shared living arrangement.
One more thing, because I've seen this bite people. If you're considering a 55+ community and there's any chance you'll have younger family members living with you part-time or long-term, read that HOA declaration with a lawyer.
Some communities allow short-term visits. Some allow one resident under 55 if the other is over. Some are absolute: nobody under 55, period, no exceptions, not even in an emergency.
I had a client in a 55+ community in Anne Arundel County who ended up in a fight with the HOA when her grandson needed to move in after a family crisis. The rules were clear, and they weren't flexible. She had to choose between helping her family and keeping her home. She sold.
That's not a hypothetical. That's real life in Maryland in 2026.
If you're reading this and thinking, "Wait, maybe I don't want the cottage after all," let's talk. I cover Cecil, Harford, Montgomery, Howard, Anne Arundel, Charles, Baltimore County and Baltimore City in Maryland, plus York and Lancaster Counties in Pennsylvania, New Castle County in Delaware, and Washington D.C.
I've been doing this long enough to know that what people say they want on the first call and what they actually need by the third showing are often completely different things. That's fine. That's the process. I spent two decades in education before I ever sold a house, so I'm comfortable teaching you how to think this through, not just showing you what's on the MLS.
You can browse current listings here to get a feel for what's out there, or just reach out directly and we'll start with a conversation, not a sales pitch.
The right move isn't always the smaller one. Sometimes it's the one that holds everyone you love, with room left over to actually enjoy each other.
Katrina Kirton Sherrod, REALTOR® · Samson Properties · Licensed in MD, DC, PA & DE · 443-616-9770 · Katrina@kkstherealtor.com
“The best time to buy a home was five years ago. The second best time is after we talk.” — Every honest realtor, eventually