America’s residential real estate is entering a seismic generational shift.

Many millennial homeowners, born between 1981 to 1996, are aching to move from the starter homes they bought in recent years. As their families grow, they hanker for more space.

Meanwhile, numerous baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, are entering their elder years and looking for a smaller, one-level house with low upkeep.

Real estate specialists say what’s logical -- and starting to happen -- is for millennials and boomers to, in effect, swap properties. They say many young adults who wish to sell a starter home in order to trade up are wise to focus their marketing efforts on downsizers of their parents’ age.

“One of the absolute hottest of all properties in the current market is the small, detached house in excellent condition. Because boomers dislike stairs, this type of house is doubly appealing if it’s on a single level with a first-floor master suite,” says Merrill Ottwein, a longtime real estate broker and past president of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents (naeba.org).

Sid Davis, the author of “A Survival Guide to Selling a Home,” says newly constructed one-level properties are especially marketable because they’re in short supply in many areas.

Dorcas Helfant, a realty company owner and former president of the National Association of Realtors (realtor.org), says some seniors try apartment living and then reverse course, heading back to a traditional detached house.

“We’ve had people who’ve come out of a high-rise condo after trying it for only a year. A traditional house is part of their cultural heritage and where they feel at ease,” Helfant says. She says they also miss the privacy and convenience of a detached property.

“They don’t want to have to get into an elevator to go outside. They want more personal space and a little land around them, including possibly a small garden,” she says.

Here are a few pointers for those seeking to sell a senior-friendly house:

-- Assess the market supply of such houses in your area.

If you’re planning to sell one of the rare senior-friendly houses in your neighborhood, Davis says it’s conceivable your place could fetch a premium price of up to 10% more than houses of like square footage that lack these features.

But he cautions to make sure that the supply-demand ratio is in your favor before putting a price tag on your property.

“It’s always unwise to overprice your home, especially when it first hits the market and buyer interest is at its peak,” Davis says.

-- Investigate the cost of adapting your house to senior needs.

To cater to the burgeoning senior market, some sellers are tempted to renovate their vertical houses to make them more user-friendly. For example, they contemplate adding a first-floor master suite. But Davis says such a major investment is usually a mistake, unless you intend to enjoy the improvement for several years before you move.

“Spending too much on a pre-sale basis is overkill. Normally, you can’t expect to get any more than 60% back for a major addition when you sell,” he says.

Still, there are some less-expensive steps that could be justified by would-be sellers who have the senior market in mind. For example, you might wish to replace shag carpet with laminate flooring to make your rooms easier to navigate for those in wheelchairs.

Also, sellers who are already planning to redo a kitchen might want to incorporate some easy-to-use features with the senior market in mind. These could include wide, low kitchen cabinets and countertops, as well as wide doorways.

“Many people don’t wait until they have health problems or need a wheelchair to think about buying a more accessible house. Once they hit their early 60s, they start preparing for their future needs,” Davis says.

-- Stress your home’s senior-friendly features.

Any home placed on the Multiple Listing Service can be easily tagged by a listing agent to reflect its senior-friendly features. Because of this, any agent searching on behalf of senior buyers can do a computer run to locate nearly all the available one-level homes in a neighborhood, as well as those with a first-floor master suite.

But as Helfant says, the listing agent for a senior-friendly house can do much more than identify its features in the MLS. Ask your agent to highlight your home’s special features through various types of marketing -- including all types of social media, as well as newspaper and online ads.

“With so many older people now in the home-buying population, it’s totally in your interest to trumpet whatever features you have to draw in senior buyers,” Helfant says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)

After college, a preschool teacher fulfilled her heartfelt wish to take up residence in a trendy Manhattan neighborhood. She couldn’t imagine a more exciting lifestyle and so pursued her New York dream for nearly 10 years.

But after getting married and starting a family, the teacher’s priorities changed quickly. Suddenly, she and her new husband hankered to move from their tiny New York rental to a three-bedroom house of their own in a nearby suburb with greenery and good schools.

“They had a strong urge for a real community, a place with friendly families who have little kids of their own,” says Stacy Berman, a veteran real estate agent and the teacher’s aunt.

Like many first-time buyers, the young couple were convinced they could pursue their real estate plans on their own. They spent countless hours doing internet research, scanning available listings. They also drove around several appealing neighborhoods, dropping by a number of open houses.

Yet after months of independent searching without success, the couple still felt confused and overwhelmed. That’s when the teacher reached out to her aunt for help.

Berman referred the couple to an experienced real estate agent in their area, and shortly after they found an affordable townhouse to their liking in a neighborhood that met many of their requirements.

“A good agent helps you see the big picture, provides hand-holding through the entire process and assists you to reach sound decisions,” Berman says.

Professional guidance is particularly important during the current period, when entry-level homes remain in short supply and prices are still ascending.

“These days it’s especially tough for families with children to get all their needs met in a property that’s still within their price range,” says Dorcas Helfant, a past president of the National Association of Realtors (realtor.org).

She urges working parents to pick a community that’s reasonably close to their jobs, even if that means accepting a smaller or older place than they could obtain for the same price in a distant suburb.

“It’s important that the kids have you at home rather than sitting in traffic two hours a day,” Helfant says.

Here are a few other pointers for buyers with young offspring:

-- Don’t rely solely on test scores when assessing school quality.

Though it’s now easy to compare schools on standardized test scores, there are many other factors to consider as well, according to GreatSchools (greatschools.org), a national nonprofit that ranks schools in multiple ways and offers guidelines for parents on school selection.

William Bainbridge, an educational policy expert, urges buyers with kids to visit any school of interest. That way they’ll get a feel for the school’s culture and whether its employees support and encourage the students who attend there.

“You could be surprised to find that a school in a less expensive neighborhood could be a better bet than one in a pricey area, especially if your child has special talents or needs,” Bainbridge says.

-- Reduce your expectations on yard size.

Many parents -- recalling their own carefree childhoods in suburban settings where big yards were the norm -- automatically assume their kids will thrive more with a large yard.

“But what was good for you back then isn’t necessarily the only good choice for your kids today," Helfant says.

"Once kids reach school age, most are involved in lots of programmed activities, such as sports teams, educational enrichment and summer camps. There’s less spontaneous play,” she says.

Also, neighborhoods where yards are smaller are often friendlier and closer-knit.

“Where yards are smaller, kids are closer to their friends. They can walk door-to-door. You don’t always have to drive them around to see their buddies,” Helfant says.

-- Look for a floor plan that meshes with your lifestyle.

Helfant says it’s more important for couples with children to have a floor plan that encourages togetherness than a large home.

“You can trade off those big, formal dining and living rooms if you can get a full-sized kitchen that flows directly into a fairly big family room,” she says.

For dual-income families, the advantage of this combination area is that it encourages parents and kids to spend time together, while the parents are cooking or the kids are doing homework or playing games on the computer.

-- Seek as many bedrooms as you can afford.

Brand-new houses with lots of square footage typically feature spacious master bedroom suites. Secondary bedrooms, designed for children or guests, are also very large, often with their own walk-in closets.

But Helfant says it’s more important for families to have an adequate number of bedrooms than large bedrooms or a sumptuous master suite. Children naturally prefer to have their own rooms, though they’ll adapt if your housing budget requires them to share rooms.

“Even more important than the number of bedrooms is that families have at least two full baths -- meaning each has a shower or a tub-shower combination. This is a simple matter of convenience,” she says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)

Ten years ago, in the wake of the real estate market crash, some thinkers predicted that many young adults would disavow homeownership in favor of lifelong renting.

As it turned out, their predictions were greatly overstated.

“When a couple gets pregnant or wants a dog plus a fenced yard for the dog to run in, that’s when they get extremely serious about buying a house,” says Ashley Richardson, a veteran real estate agent affiliated with the Residential Real Estate Council (crs.com).

Given that the economy remains strong and mortgage rates low, Richardson and other real estate specialists expect 2020 to be a near banner year for home sales to millennials.

“This year we’re facing a huge amount of pent-up demand among buyers,” says Richardson, who sells property through the Long & Foster realty company.

Aspiring first-time buyers in many popular metro areas face nearly unprecedented challenges in their quest for ownership, according to Tom Early, a longtime real estate broker and past president of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents (naeba.org).

“In recent years, price increases have vastly outstripped wage gains for many young buyers. At the same time, inventories of entry-level property have been as tight as a drum in lots of places where people want to live,” Early says.

Largely because of the challenges they face, many would-be 2020 homeowners are already taking preparatory steps for a purchase. They’re attending home-buying seminars, cleaning up blemishes on their credit reports, seeking mortgage pre-approval and surveying property online.

Here are a few pointers for motivated first-time buyers:

-- Screen for experience when selecting a real estate agent to assist you.

People who are seeking to buy a first property are advised to search for an agent who has years of experience selling homes in their targeted area.

Before you start looking at specific properties, a strong agent will supply you with data on home prices and valuation trends, relative school performance statistics, and information on nearby amenities, such as parks and hiker-biker trails.

-- Fire any agent who tries to rush you to buy before you’re ready.

Though most agents are compensated on commission and therefore don’t make any money until a sale goes through, a reputable one won’t try to hurry you into a purchase before you’re ready, says Eric Tyson, a consumer advocate and co-author of “Home Buying for Dummies.”

Of course, it’s not fair to ask the agent to spend multiple weekends over months showing you property unless you’re progressing toward your goal of finding the best available neighborhood and home in your price range. Every veteran agent has had to cut ties with clients who looked continuously without any serious intention of buying.

Still, as Tyson says, it’s not unreasonable to spend multiple months doing intermittent (yet focused) outings with an agent before committing.

-- Supplement your search with visits to open houses.

If you’re planning a major housing change, like moving from a downtown condo to a detached house in the suburbs, you needn’t rely solely on your agent to help you sort through your choices. You can do much of the footwork on your own.

“By visiting a lot of open houses, you can narrow down what you do and don’t like in a home,” Early says.

Many open houses are heavily advertised with street signs posted by the listing agents for the properties. If you’re considering a condo purchase, however, Early suggests you also consult newspaper advertising or online listings for open-house details.

-- Look to neighborhood residents for local information.

As you develop a short list of housing alternatives, some of the most useful sources of realistic information are those who live and work in the areas you’re considering.

“People usually know their neck of the woods as well as any professional who sells property there. Unless they’re trying to unload their home, the neighbors will tell you the real skinny about traffic tie-ups, school problems and noise issues,” Early says.

What’s the best way to approach neighborhood residents? He recommends you walk through the community on a weekend afternoon when many people are likely to be out in their yards. Tell them you admire their neighborhood and are considering a move there. Then feel free to politely pose a few questions.

“If people start giving you the cold shoulder, you can bet that neighborhood is unfriendly. For that reason alone, you may want to drop it from your list,” Early says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)