Are Multi-Generation Compounds a Trend?

Family-style second homes may be the Next Big Thing in housing. According to the Wall Street Journal, builders are offering "compounds," or lots on which a comppound of more than one house can be built, in several parts of the country. The article cites Crescent Resources in Charlotte, N.C., which has sold 80 compound lots in Lake James, and has similar communities on the drawing board including Palmetto Bluff near Hilton Head, S.C. The idea is for different generations to have a place to build their own vacation houses even if they don't have the kind of money that Kennedys and other famous families have used to build their own compounds. In Lake James, one family paid $400,000 for a 15-acre lot. Near Bethel, N.Y. in the Catskill Mountains, Chapin Estate lots run from $155,000 for a wooded five-acre lot to $1.3 million for eight acres on a lake, all zoned for multiple dwellings.