The reces sion that began in December 2007 has been dubbed by some as the “Great Recession” (Wessel 2010). The  housing bubble and related recession have prompted researchers and  journalists to explore changes in family households and living arrangements (see PEW Research  Center, March 2010; October 2011). Have there been changes in complex family  households as a result?  This paper examines how complex family households changed during the recessionary period (2007- 2009) with 1- year and 3 -year data from the American Community Survey (ACS). The paper first examines the characteristics of individuals who moved into existing family  households, as well as the characteristics of such complex family households, in order to refine  which changes are attributable to the economic downturn. Additional descriptive and multi-level analyses explore if metro areas harder hit by the recession had detectable changes in multifamily  households. The proportion of complex family  households increased from 2006 to 2010. Such households were more likely to be headed by younger householders, householders of Hispanic origin, and to include a family member who was unemployed. Individuals in 2006 and 2010 who lived in complex family households were more often never married . County-level unemployment rates are not as important as the employment characteristics of household members themselves for predicting the likelihood that a family household will be complex