When it comes to the generational breakdown of who owns large homes in the U.S., empty nester baby boomers dominate the market, and metro Detroit is no exception.

Nationwide, empty nesters between the ages of 58 and 76 years old own about 28% of large homes — or those with three or more bedrooms. In metro Detroit, that number is 27.6%.

Next in line are millennials with kids. Folks between the ages of 26 and 41 years old with children living at home own about 14% of the country’s larger homes; it’s 13.7% in metro Detroit.

Those numbers are according to a new report from online real estate brokerage Redfin, which draws on 2022 Census data to analyze homeownership trends.

Redfin defines “empty nesters” as households headed by baby boomers with one or two adults living in the home. 

“An additional 7.5% of the country’s large homes are owned by baby boomers with households of three adults or more; this category likely consists mostly of adult children living with their boomer parents,” according to the report.

Empty nesters’ share of large homes has nearly doubled nationwide over the last 10 years, according to the report, with millennial parents in most metro areas struggling to keep up. That includes major metros like Los Angeles, where millennial parents make up just 9.4% of large-home owners.

“Many young families are renting large homes,” the report said. “Millennials with kids take up one-quarter (24.8%) of the three-bedroom-plus rentals in the U.S., the largest share of any generational category, followed by millennials without kids (11.6%).”

That equates to roughly 1 in 10 millennial families with children living in three-bedroom-plus rentals.

The report notes that boomers dominate the market for larger homes nationwide despite the fact that millennials make up the largest share of any generation. No metro area’s market for larger homes is dominated by empty nesters more than Pittsburgh, where 32.1% of large-home owners fall into that subcategory.

As Bloomberg reported last week, the housing market has shown more signs of life after a decline in mortgage rates at the end of last year eased some pressure for buyers. Redfin Corp.’s homebuyer demand index — which measures tour requests and other buying services from its agents — rose 5% in the four weeks ended Jan. 7 from a month earlier. Contracts to buy homes had their smallest annual decline in two years, according to Redfin.